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Burial grounds and cemeteries in Birmingham 1873

Vivienne14

Kentish Brummie Moderator
Staff member
While recently researching burial ground records on another thread, it occurred to me that, given the history of Birmingham’s early burial grounds, their closure and, in some cases, removal and reinterment of human remains, it can sometimes be difficult to precisely track the location of some ancestors.

By the late 1800s the biggest factor in the history of these grounds was overcrowding and the perceived impact on health. Below is a general list of how the older grounds were affected in 1873. This might help some with locating burials (or by eliminating some grounds from searches). At this point in time changes meant many grounds were closed to burials or restricted in the type of burial allowed ie no open interments, or brick/vault burials.

In 1873 the Burial Committee reviewed the state of burial grounds in Birmingham. Many burial grounds were near full. The review, presented by Dr Holland, was reported to the Board and some key decisions were made about the future of these Birmingham burial grounds.


Discontinued burial grounds
The following burial grounds agreed to discontinue burials, they had in any case, mostly, discontinued any burials. These grounds had no brick graves or vaults.

St John’s Burial Ground, Liverpool Street, Deritend
St Philips’ Burial Ground
Betholom Row Burial Ground (Jewish)
Granville Street Burial Ground (Jewish)
Cannon Street Baptist Burial Ground
Carr’s Lane Burial Ground (Independent)
Newhall Street Baptist Burial Ground
Graham Street Mount Zion Burial Ground
Lombard Street Baptist Burial Ground
Bradford Street Wesleyan Burial Ground
Ebenezer Steelhouse Lane Burial Ground
Newtown Row Burial Ground (Independent)


Cessation of burials
Burials were to cease entirely at:

St Martin’s Cemetery, Park Street
St Martin’s Churchyard
St Philip’ Churchyard
St Bartholomew’s Churchyard
St James’ Churchyard
St Mary’s Churchyard
St George’s Churchyard
St Paul’s Churchyard
St Thomas’ Churchyard
St Peters Churchyard (Broad Street)

Limited burials
A small number of burials were allowed at:

Unitarian Meeting House Burial Ground. There had been some recent burials, but they agreed to continue only with burials into brick or walled graves or vault burials.

All Saints. Burials in the ground had been prohibited since 1863, only those in brick graves, vaults or already purchased graves were allowed.

Holy Trinity. They agreed to a few more vaults or vault graves in the unused part of the burial ground.

Edgbaston churchyards. They were allowed to use those graves already purchased and family brick graves and vaults. Only some new brick graves or vaults would be allowed if there was space. There were to be no more open interments.

St Matthew’s. Burials were limited to those in brick, vault or existing family graves. There was no room for new graves.

St Joseph’s Catholic Cemetery. Burials were to be limited to existing brick and family graves.

Society of Friends. They were only to use the unused portion of the burial ground (remains buried one per grave), only a few plots were left at the time.


Note. The list does not include Christ Church, perhaps the catacombs had already been closed to burials ?

Viv.
 
Thank you for this information. I have heard that at a later date, some remains were removed from St Philip's cemetery and records would have been made. Do you have any idea where these records may be held?
 
Afraid I don’t know the answer but this may be of help. I think the most likely places would be either Key Hill or Warstone Lane. As a starting point there are contact details given in the link below. Key Hill opened in 1836 and Warstone Lane in 1848. Also the church itself may have a record. Viv.

Thank you so much for this response, it's very helpful as I don't know the area at all.
 
Would anyone know how public burials worked please? There can be a number of people buried beneath a memorial stone listing their names. However there can be a gap of a number of years from the first burial to the last....so would they reopen the grave to put another body in each time?
 
Would anyone know how public burials worked please? There can be a number of people buried beneath a memorial stone listing their names. However there can be a gap of a number of years from the first burial to the last....so would they reopen the grave to put another body in each time?
cant be certain but i think names were put on the memorial stones only if family could afford it so there could be many bodies buried before the next name was added to the stone...one of my rellies is buried in a public grave and i know there are at least 90 others but there are only about a dozen names on the stone..

lyn
 
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Thanks Lyn. I can't get my head around 90 people being in the one grave. I don't know how they would all fit. Just seems so sad. Think I've found relatives in Key Hill Cemetery but they couldn't afford their names on the headstone, and some of the sites have been reused.
 
I asked a similar question and received a good answer here...

 
Thanks Lyn. I can't get my head around 90 people being in the one grave. I don't know how they would all fit. Just seems so sad. Think I've found relatives in Key Hill Cemetery but they couldn't afford their names on the headstone, and some of the sites have been reused.
Graves that were over twenty coffins deep were quite common. Add to this a minimum of 100mm (4”) between each burial, you are into quite deep excavations. I one read a story of a grave digger who had to be rescued from a grave site that was 50 feet deep after he was overcome by bad air.
 
Goodness me! Would the grave just be covered and then uncovered when a burial was to take place.
Basically yes. If you think about the industrialised cities like Birmingham. They had high wealth inequality, poverty, poor housing a high birth-rate combined with a high a mortality rates the cemeteries would have been quite busy. They managed to pack around 80,000 burials into St Philips Churchyard in Birmingham
 
Would they have been put in a coffin do you think? or would that have been an extra expense?
I believe that there was and still is some legislation around that states the dead must be buried in a coffin. As always there may have been an odd exception. For instance, in epidemics there may be a remote or mass burial in a plague or cholera pit. In Bilston in 1832 there were 742 deaths in the space of 6 week. There are stories of the town’s population being unable to bury the dead due to a lack of coffins. But generally, a coffin was statutory requirement. I have heard stories of some parish churches also insisting that the dead had to have a shroud too.
 
Hi just wondering if anybody can help, was there any cemeterys on Bristol road south longbridge as I'm having trouble searching and if there was would anything been buried on top like flats for instance. It would be great if you could help thankyou.
 
Are you looking for a particular name? If so posting it on here, with an approx date, might allow the members to search and perhaps identify a particular cemetery.
 
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Hi just wondering if anybody can help, was there any cemeterys on Bristol road south longbridge as I'm having trouble searching and if there was would anything been buried on top like flats for instance. It would be great if you could help thankyou.
Birmingham City Council does not list a cemetary near Bristol Road South. As far as I can tell St Laurence Church, Northfield is the nearest burial ground to B.R.S. - just a thought.
 
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