Disinterment and reinterments at Birmingham burial grounds

[Vivienne14]

In this thread I intend to record any Birmingham disinterment and reinterment of human remains. I shall give brief details, an example of a report and give reference to the general thread about the place of worship and it’s burial ground. This may be of help to those researching the whereabouts of human remains removed from their original resting place. Viv.

The Old Meeting House Dudley Street
Disinterment commenced: 22/3/1882. (In1882 an obelisk was constructed to replace the monuments that were previously at The Old Meeting House chapel).
Reinterment to: predominantly Witton Cemetery
Who involved: Old Meeting House Trustees, North Western Railway Co, and Mr Till, Borough Surveyor.
A link to the thread about the Old Meeting House is here https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/for...ing-house-sunday-schools-dudley-street.50016/

 

[mikejee]

The book prepared after the old meeting house site was sold to the railway can be read, or downloaded in various formats at : https://archive.org/details/memorialsofoldme00beal

 

[Vivienne14]

St Martin’s Parish Churchyard

Disinterment commenced: 1953
Reinterment to : Warstone Lane Cemetery
Who involved: St Martin’s Church Excavators unknown.

 

[Astoness]

thanks viv these little snippets could prove very useful for our members

lyn

 

[Vivienne14]

Two years before Christ Church New Street was demolished (in 1899) most of the coffins from its catacombs were removed to Warstone Lane Cemetery. Just a few coffins went to family graves in other parts of the Midlands.


Christ Church New Street
Disinterment commenced: 1897
Reinterment to; mostly Warstone Lane Cemetery
Who involved: Christ Church Trustees, Local Authority supervision



The details of the reinterments, including a list of names is in the link below.

Christ Church Catacombs New Street removal of bodies 1890s

This list may be of interest to anyone searching for records of family buried at Christ Church, New Street. This list was posted in the Birmingham Daily Post 2 years before the church was demolished in 1899. It contains full names and the original date of interment. Viv.

birminghamhistory.co.uk

There is a thread here about Warstone Lane Cemetery. https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/warstone-lane-cemetery.5395/

 

[Vivienne14]

Jewish Cemetery, the Froggery

Disinterment commenced: c1840s
Reinterment to: 20 - 30 human remains to Granville Street
Who involved: Jewish congregation wardens, London & NW Railway Co

 

[Vivienne14]

Jewish Cemetery, Chequers Walk, Granville Street

This was the second reinterment for some of the Granville Street human remains. All the human remains, including those from the Froggery were reinterred at Witton Cemetery.

Disinterment commenced: c1870s
Reinterment to: specific Jewish burial place within Witton Cemetery
Who involved: The Midland Railway Co, Birmingham Corporation

 

[Vivienne14]

Park Street Burial Ground

This burial ground has been subject to several disturbances of burials over time.


Disinterment commenced: 1892
Reinterment to: Witton Cemetery
Who involved: City of Birmingham Corporation, possibly St Martin’s Church, possibly New Street Station



Disinterment commenced: 1967
Reinterment to: not known
Who involved: City of Birmingham Corporation




Disinterment commenced: 2018
Reinterment to: not yet known (for 8,000 human remains ?)
Who involved: City of Birmingham, excavators Mola Headland, representatives of the CofE consulted on reinterment

Extract from a news release about the excavation:

“In 1807, the land at Park Street was bought by the church, to set up an overflow cemetery for St Martin-in-the-Bullring. The cemetery opened shortly after, with the first burial written in the church register in 1810. The burial ground was only open for 63 years, closing to public burial in 1873. By this time, the burial ground had become rundown, and in 1880 the Corporation of Birmingham took the site over and opened it as a public park.

It’s not known exactly who was buried at Park Street as the burial register for the church also covers the graveyards at St Martin and St Bartholomew’s”. This is the full news release:

Archaeological excavation at Park Street burial ground underway - MOLA Headland Infrastructure

Archaeological excavations at the site of the 19th century Park Street burial ground in Birmingham are up and running for the HS2 project.

molaheadland.com

There’s a thread about the burial ground here: https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/park-street-burial-ground.48854/

 

[Vivienne14]

St Bartholomew’s Burial Ground, Masshouse Lane

Disinterment commenced: 1954
Reinterment to: Various
Who involved: City of Birmingham

Unfortunately human remains from this burial ground turned up in Hockley in 1960.

 

[Astoness]

thanks viv...the name the froggery has always fascinated me...its seems that over the years the improvement of the railways has led to a few old burial grounds being disturbed with bodies buried elsewhere..some burial grounds small some larger but i do wonder how they would cope if the bodies at say witton...warstone lane and key hill and yardley had to be dug up...one can only pray this never happens..

lyn

 

[Vivienne14]

True Lyn. I’m wondering where all the Park Street burials will go. Viv.

 

[Astoness]

True Lyn. I’m wondering where all the Park Street burials will go. Viv.

viv i thought they would have re buried them by now but despite several members trying to find out we still dont have the answer...no one seems to want to tell us anything..

lyn

 

[Vivienne14]

Please note I have updated post #3. Five years after the event, it was reported that the law was broken in order to remove the human remains to make way for the building of St Martin’s Church Hall. Viv.

 

[Vivienne14]

I have updated post #8 to include two much earlier disinterments of human remains from Park Street (before the 2018 one); one took place in 1892 for an extension of New Street Station and the other started in 1967 to make way for realignment of Albert Street.

I currently don’t have any further information about where the human remains were reinterred for the 1967 removal but will update the information as/when I find it.

Viv.

 

[Vivienne14]

St Thomas’ Church, Bath Row

Disinterment commenced: 1953
Reinterment to: Warstone Lane Cemetery
Who involved: Birmingham City Council ?

Following damage from WW2 bombing, the church was never rebuilt. But in1953 the grounds were laid out for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. At this time the gravestones were removed and the human remains were reinterred. Then in 1995, the gardens were re-designed as the St. Thomas's Peace Garden to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of WW2.

 

[Vivienne14]

While putting the details of this thread together I realised how confusing it was for people looking into burials in determining which Birmingham cemeteries the final resting places of their relations might be, particularly if their remains were moved from the smaller, disused churches or chapel grounds. This is a simple table at the moment, but I’m pulling together a few key points for quick reference about the main cemeteries - all in one chart. I shall add to this as info becomes available to me. If anyone has anything they can add, please do let me know. Thanks. Viv.

Burial ground	Opened	Closed	General info
Key Hill (Birmingham General Cemetery) Hockley	1836 Originally a private concern	1863	Originally non-denominational Purchased by Birmingham City Council in 1923
Warstone Lane	1847 Originally a private concern	1982	Originally Church of England, later purchased by Birmingham City Council
Witton	1860/63 Owned by Corporation of Birmingham		1862 Jewish interments in specified area of the Ground - Birmingham Hebrew Congregation Cemetery
Brandwood End Kings Norton	1899		Established by King's Norton Rural District Council

 

[guilbert53]

Not sure where to post this, but just seen the HS2 Archaeology group are doing a presentation on 15th September about their findings in the Park St burial ground.

More here:

https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/306412309300976655

You can see a list of all the HS2 related events here:

Events Archive - HS2

www.hs2.org.uk

 

[Pedrocut]

The Webinar, The Archaeology of HS2: Coleshill can be seen here...

 

[Vivienne14]

Sr Peters Chapel, St Peters Place

Disinternment commenced (? - Chapel was demolished in 1969 but remains were removed to commence the building of the Convention Centre)
Reinterred to Oscott Cemetery, Sutton Coldfield

There's a thread about the Chapel here https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/for...hapel-st-peters-place.3110/page-9#post-805678

 

[Vivienne14]

Holy Trinity, Camp Hill
From Wiki

The burial ground was closed in 1873 although family graves continued to be used until 1925. Some remains were removed due to the widening of Sandy Lane/ Bordesley Middleway; and many gravestones were removed after the church was deconsecrated in the late 1960s.

 

[Vivienne14]

The following information has been extracted from the Holy Trinity thread from posts by pjmburns and the late Phil. Reburials appear to have been made at Brandwood End Cemetery. It reports 2000 reburials.