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Warstone Lane - catacombs

Hi brian
thankyou for posting the information
as i said in an early post i wasnt sure if it would be alright for me to tidy anything up
but it sadens me to see some of the graves in such a sad state as these are ment to be lasting memorials for out lost loved ones
but i know feel better in knowing that i can tidy a garve while im there along with the catacombs
but i will be carefull
and i will try and come down to some of the work partys

once again thankyou for the information
 
Key Hill Warstone Lane
Hi I'm new to the fourm,I'm hopeful someone can help give me some information,I'm looking for Thomas & Mary Ann Needle nee Lambourn burial place
Thomas died in 1846 Birmingham aged about 60 years I have no death details on Mary,last living Hurst st Birmingham
Thank you
Julie
 
HI WENDY
I hope you will excuse my intellients but what happened to the bodys of some of these catotombs
as i recall most of them had been smashed open and they was emptied and i see that the council decided to board them back up to stop the tramps and druggies useing them as shelter which was good ;
but many yeas ago in the fiftys i went there ,there was quite afew had been broken open and there contents
disapeareard they was like that for years
the pics are nice and its nice its been cleaned up
do you think it was the council years ago decided to break them open and remove the contents
way back then this was around the year of1959 era i was there at that spot
and experieced some strange movents from a certain grave i will not mention the name of the grave in case there is family connection whom may be around today it was a well kept grave in white marbel with the blue chipping ;
i am planning to go there this week end and hope fully to st babus,s in erdington ;
many thanks best wishes astonion ;
 
julieweb said:
Key Hill Warstone Lane
Hi I'm new to the fourm,I'm hopeful someone can help give me some information,I'm looking for Thomas & Mary Ann Needle nee Lambourn burial place
Thomas died in 1846 Birmingham aged about 60 years I have no death details on Mary,last living Hurst st Birmingham
Thank you
Julie
Click to expand...
Hello Julie and welcome to the forum. I only have records for Key Hill Cemetery which I have checked and Thomas and Mary Ann are not listed. They may be in Warstone Lane Cemetery the indexes are at Central Library. Good Luck.
 
Astonian said:
HI WENDY
I hope you will excuse my intellients but what happened to the bodys of some of these catotombs
as i recall most of them had been smashed open and they was emptied and i see that the council decided to board them back up to stop the tramps and druggies useing them as shelter which was good ;
but many yeas ago in the fiftys i went there ,there was quite afew had been broken open and there contents
disapeareard they was like that for years
the pics are nice and its nice its been cleaned up
do you think it was the council years ago decided to break them open and remove the contents
way back then this was around the year of1959 era i was there at that spot
and experieced some strange movents from a certain grave i will not mention the name of the grave in case there is family connection whom may be around today it was a well kept grave in white marbel with the blue chipping ;
i am planning to go there this week end and hope fully to st babus,s in erdington ;
many thanks best wishes astonion ;
Click to expand...
Astonian I don't know anything about this. I do know some catacomb's were broken into but I know nothing of bodies being removed. The only thing I can suggest is that some were never used and were actually empty. These may have been the ones broken into. The main reason they were sealed is because they were unsafe.
 
Hi Wendy
Thank you it was worth a try,I have looked at the online photos at Warstone lane cemetery, I was lucky to have found one photos of Thomas grandson with some family.
Wendy sorry i didnt mention to you that I live in Australia,its a bit hard for me to go to the Library, are there any online cemetery records for Birmingham area ? evey time I seach I keep coming up with the council web pages,or a list of cemeteries names,nothing else,it can get very costly to research in England from here .
Also do you know if the cemetery trust will ever make the records available online, like what we have in Aust in the near futrue? I have looked at the findagrave website, England records are slowly coming on line.

Thomas is my 3x great grandfather,were there any Needle's at Key hill at all if so could I have the details ?

Australian Cemeteries web site
https://www.australiancemeteries.com/

Thanks Wendy

Julie
 
Hi Julie the records are being transcribed but I don't know when they will be online. There are no Needles in Key Hill so they must be in Warstone Lane. I will ask about your family but I am not going to the cemeteries as I am not feeling to well at the moment. When I feel better I will do more searching for you.
 
Sorry to say that I think 1846 is too early for Warstone Lane. I think it opened in 1848

Although my husband is a Lambourne/Lamborne (or any other combination!) we aren't connected; my husband's relatives were in Oxfordshire at that time.
 
Since Brian uncovered the tenth archway on the top tier of the catacombs (what we suspected was 10-I) and the two additional memorial slabs (11-I and 12-I) above the catacombs, Shortie and I have spent quite a bit of time trying to work out a bit more about about the numbering of the catacombs and the relationship between these and the memorial slabs above the catacombs.

The document that can be seen here pulls together information from trips to Warstone Lane, Birmingham Central Library and Handsworth Cemetery.

We hope that it is useful in helping to understand a bit more about the catacombs. Additional information will be added to this thread as it is discovered. In the meantime, threads will be started for each of the plaques at the entrances to the catacombs, with a view to finding out more about each of the families that are commemorated.


Leslam and Shortie
 
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Hi Leslam
Thanks, I think I read some where when it had opened,as for the Lamborn,Mary Ann was born in West Wycombe, Buckingham and Thomas was born Oxford,I'm still triyng to get my head around the place names of England.

Julie
 
Warstone definitely didn't open until 1848. I've just looked on the Birmingham City Bereavement service website. It says "Opened in 1848 by the Birmingham Church of England Cemetery Company and acquired by the Birmingham City Council under a compulsory purchase order in 1951. No new graves available."
So a burial in 1846 would have been elsewhere - probably a churchyard. I'll have a think about likely candidates....

Contact me by IM if you want help with Lamborn in Oxford.
 
hi leslam
well done guys in uncovering more information on the catacombs
i shall look forward with great excitement for further developments
i poped down to warston on tuesday and was throughly confused with the numbering sytem so i have no i dea how you guys do it

but welldone for all your hard work
 
Hi
Please forgive me,you are right about the year, sorry how do I contact you by IM ? I'm still working my way the forum.
Julie
 
Julie - I have found some of the records you need (and probably one or two more besides!) at St Martin's. If you send me your email address, I'll send them to you
 
Well done Leslam & Shortie - Good detective work.
As you say, the Cemetery did not open until 1848. The first grave is to your left as you stand to the left of the catacombs at the beginning of the path that goes down towards the mint. It is a tall sandstone pillar. The original church had 2 ambulatories (Cloisters) - very unusual at the time. As you stand above the catacombs facing Icknield st The North one went towards Pitsford St and the South one went towards Warstone Lane. The South one had 21 vaults underneath it.
The BMSG&H will be at the Key Hill Open Day on Sat/Sun 11/12th September and will be doing Official Look ups for KH & WL using their computerised records of BOTH cemeteries. It is hoped soon to have the basic look details, Surname, Christian name, year, grave No. & Register entry No. for WL available in the Tourist Info Office in Vyse St, in the same way the KH details are available (Note Mary in the TI only works Tues - Sat).

It may be inch by inch - but we are getting there!
 
Hi Wendy
Thanks very much,take care of yourself first,I'm sure in time I will or sks will be able to help find them.
At least I know now they are not at Key Hill or Warstone lane.
Thank you
Julie
 
The summary document has been added back into post #39 and pictures now reposted to all the individual catacomb threads:
Medlicott
Harrison
Harrison/Cox
Adams
Lucas
Patrick/Kimberley
Guest
Cutler​
 
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I have never seen a picture of the inside of the Warstone Lane catacombs, but I assume that it must look something like this picture, which is the inside of the catacombs in Exeter. They were built in 1832 to help accomodate the victims of the major epidemics of influenza, typhus, typhoid and cholera that gripped the country in the 1830s. I'm not sure of the date of the picture, or whether the catacombs are still open.

catacombs-exeter.jpg
The picture comes from an article on epidemics in the Febrarury edition of "Family Tree" magazine. The article is interesting, detailing outbreaks in 1831-1833, 1836-1842 and 1847-8; the latter accounted for over 30,000 deaths.
 
Hi leslam, I looked at the picture before I read the post, I thought you had finally gained access to the Catacombs!! I've often wondered what Warstone and Key Hill ones look like inside. It's a pity you and Key Hill Brian can't put a camera inside as they do when investigating drains!!
rosie.
 
Yes, wouldn't that be fun :)
I now have the missing pictures to add back into the earlier posts, so I'll try to sort that out in the next couple of days.
 
I've now added back the nine images that had previously been posted by from Dave M and removed the old attachment boxes
Thank you Dave for sending me copies to upload.
 
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