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Churchyards into Gardens

O

O.C.

Guest
In 1878 by the Closed Burial Grounds Act Birmingham Corporation obtained possession of the burial grounds in
Park Street (which use to belong to St.Martins Church )
The adjoining graveyard of St. Bartholomew's
And the churchyards of the following churches
St Martin's
St.Mary's
St.Paul''s
St George's
St Phillip's
St Gabriel's
St Thomas's
And turned them into public gardens
 
Hi Cromwell: For future refence any idea where the disinterred remains from these
burial grounds went to or were they officially unused even though they were designated
as burial grounds?

Thanks
 
Thats a bit of a puzzle Jennyann as I do not know what they did  in those  times regarding grassing over graveyards but I can tell you this as it is fact, my Father died in 1948 and I went to sort his grave out in Witton Cemetery and I was told it had been grassed over which is the policy today.So I wanted to know if I could find it because I might want his remains reburied. They went into the backroom and came out a few minutes later with a map and said "if I measure 15ft from this point and 36 ft from this point he is buried their". I enquired about his first wife and was told the same thing but she was buried further on
Apparently it goes on every year to reclaim the cemetery.
The church at Camp Hill when they turned in into a hostel for the homeless etc. I worked just across the road and screens were put up and all the remains removed under the eyes of the police the gravestones where placed against the church wall.
Now in Berkswell the old gravestones are used to repair the fabric of the church and if you walk round it you can see the writing still on them.
So your guess is as good as mine
 
Normally the graves are dug up and the remains are put into a mass grave,unless the families of the deceased are willing to bury the remains again.
I am a trustee of a charity that have saved a church and the graves from the same fate. It has taken us 4 years in our fight with the C of E,but at last those souls can rest in peace.
 
Thanks for that Cromwell and Angie. Angie, why did it take so long. Were the C of E. trying to sell the land? I can imagine in a great many cases the family members are no longer in the area or deceased themselves so, therefore, can't be contacted regarding the reinterrment of remains. I think we often think that a churchyard burial is a final resting place but that is not necessarily the case. Good for you Angie to hang in there. I have a feeling that there is going to be a lot more of this as time goes by.

I was at an abandoned church and church yard in Stoke Newington near Highbury in London two years ago, where William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army is buried. His grave is tended by that group but the rest of the churchyard is an overgrown jungle. Hopefully, the council will renovate the place. It's a very sad sight and it's fate would be not the right one I fear if it is not renovated.
 
Jennyann

The church that we have saved was closed by the C of E 6 years ago because there were only a handfull of villagers using it.
The C of E were going to sell the church off as a house,and of coarse to have a house you need a garden.
We the villagers knew that the C of E did not own the land that the church stands on,plus they could not find the title deeds to the land,so this is why we have fought tooth and nail for the church.
My partner Mick has his father and 2 other generations burried there. Our fight ended last year when we as a commitee signed a 99 year lease for a £1 a year rent,so you see it can be done.

People power :knuppel2: :knuppel2: :knuppel2:
 
Angie, that is a good ending to what was no doubt a long fought battle. The solution is a good one. The David and Goliath type of battles that have a good outcome are more than satisfying for the public as a whole these days.. I fear there will be a lot more of this church selling by the C of E in the future though.
 
Robert

Yes we did make the news. The BBC came down but while we were protesting it all got out of hand,the main man who is incharge of selling redundant churches who is also a vicar was run up the road by a mob of angry villagers,looking back it was quite funny :2funny:
We also made the national news papers. :knuppel2:
 
Angie lovely story People power what its all about.
Not all people were buried in graveyards way back. A certain gentleman who owned Baddesley Clinton Hall a few mile from me in the 16c came home unexpected from a trip and caught his wife in the arms of another man, so he stabbed him to death, he was given the death sentence but as he was a favorite with the King he was pardoned but............he had to raise the church spire by an X amount of feet as a penance and the same around the local villages and when he died the king said he had to be buried in an upright position right in the entrance to the church so when folk went to church they had to stand on his head to enter,the spot were he is under is well worn ( That is in Baddesley Clinton Church )
And the ones buried at the Gate Saltley is another strange story as a couple of locals were executed and their bodies put in irons on the gibbet and left to rot but someone must have felt sorry for them and cut them down and the bodies were never seen again but when they was building a new road by the gate at Saltley workmen found the remains and the irons that they were in, they ended up in a pub (cannot think of the name) by the Ressa at Aston and were on display for years
 
Photo that I meant to put in Reply 2 and forgot showing the Gravestones from the 1700's used to repair the fabric of the Church, the 3 dark stones are all gravestones.
 
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