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St Barnabas Erdington Monumental Inscriptions

Dot Kilmister

New Member
First post ever, so if I have done anthing wrong please accept my apologies.

I am trying to locate at grave at St Barnbus Church but the references I have are pretty confusing.
Does anyone have a map of the graveyard that I can view.
 
The BMSGH sell microfiche copies of the Memorial Inscriptions Of St.Barnabos church. The fiche usually includes a drawing of the layout of the church yard. The other possibility of a map of the church yard would be at the Birmingham Reference library.
What reference do you have?
Here is a link to the microfiche contact;

Monumental Inscriptions for Erdington, St Barnabas
Birmingham


List of names taken from the fiche of Monumental Inscriptions for
St., Barnabas Church in Erdington, Birmingham

Fiche number I049 sold by BMSGH
published here by kind permission of the Birmingham and Midland Society for Genealogy and Heraldry
Transcription kindly submitted by Alva King
Regards

Steve

 
Dot
you will be very lucky to find your grave there if it was at the front of the church, as the vicar had all the not claimed graves removed and smashed up. I wont go into details again as my blood boils.
regards
Amanda
 
Thank you to all who have helped in one way or another.
I did find the map in Birmingham Library in the monumental inscriptions book by BMSGH.
We were able to find the grave but were appalled at the state of parts of the churchyard. Yes they do appear to be re-building the church but why the apparent neglect of the one side of the churchyard which is where we located the grave we were looking for, the whole part is full of sunken/broken or overgrown graves with a very small % of them being cared for.
I have also read previous reports of the removal of headstones by a former vicar and was shocked by what happened, my heart goes out to the living relatives who were unable to act in the time limit given. I too have a link to this church as it was where i got married in 1965 and intended to take my vows again there in 5 years time, lets hope that the church is restored to some of its former glory before then.

Dot Kilmister.
 
Amanda

There are so many ex parishioners of Erdington Parish that are more than cross at the way the new vicar seems to have no feeling whatsoever relating to the way the church is going to end up.

Fentham
 
Hi Fentham.
Having spoken to the new Vicar I am sure that she certainly has an interest in how the church ends up... just not what the monuments mean to the parishioners and to those parishioners who have moved away from Erdington. I have always taken a keen interest in the churchyard and also note with increasing dismay that little seems to be happening with the churchyard other than the plan to remove even more of the links to our past. The hard work that was done by a small band of cadets has all been for nowt... the churchyard continues to deteriorate at an ever more alarming rate. It is no longer safe to walk around the churchyard even during the daytime due to the continued presence of groups of drunken yobs who seem to inhabit certain areas of the churchyard for their drunken and drug fueled binges, only last week I felt it necessary to escort an elderly lady who wanted to visit her Mother's grave. She was 78 years old and I certainly could not have left her to wander alone... I myself had just been to visit my Grandfathers grave (now vandalised) to find a group of eight drinkers around it.. one was actually sitting on it, needless to say I didn't visit the grave that day and I certainly couldn't leave an elderly lady on her own. St Mary's in Handsworth should be held up as an example to 'our' Vicar to show what should be done to preserve our heritage, a very important churchyard that the vicar of St Mary's has taken to his heart and worked miracles with. Never mind fussing about 'glass atriums' get the church and surrounding area back to it's former glory!
 
I popped into St Barnabas the other week to see if I could find any RYLAND graves for Pollypops - I pass the front often and am appaled that no one ion the congragation can spare 5 mins to kep it tidy - but when I went around the back...........!!!!!
One side (with many missing (possibly 'buried') headstones looked like a bowling green - nicely cut - the orther side of the path looked like the scenes from that bloke who has just been up & down the amazon! If you were treally lucky - you spy the tips of a few coonealth War Grave headstones where sopmeone had trampled the grass around them (Alien crop circles?) the rest was buried under several feet high grass and weeds.
I know there area is full of graves and you cannot get a lawnmower in - but they have things called strimmers these days!

The back of Aston parish church, and St Mrys in Handsworth are both similar - If you are visiting agrave - please take along a Sherpa Guide !
 
I have not been to St Barnabas so I am not familiar with it apart from pictures I have seen on the internet and also google street view. The reason I have become interested in it recently is because as Brian has mentioned I have found that I have family graves there (the ones Brian very knidly went to look for).
Whilst speaking to the vicar (who has been very kind and helpful to me) about the cemetery she told me that part of the land that stretches down to Moore End lane is suffering from subsidence and it is so bad in parts that the council workers who maintain the land are not allowed to go on it to carry out work. I thought I would mention this because if this is the part of the cemetery that you mean it may explain why it is in the state that it is. I believe that this piece of land is going to have work done on it as soon as possible but firstly a group of volunteers are going to record all the memorials on it and then another announcement will be put in the paper asking for people with graves to contact the church. I think there are only a few volunteers so it may take some time. I have to stress that this is my understanding of what is going to happen. If you have any concerns about graves I would contact the church so that you can be sure of the facts.
Polly :)
 
Hello Brian
I have the Monumental Inscriptions of Erdington Parish. If you want me to look up Ryland graves I will. From memory there are several.
 
RYLAND Agnes Adeline 143 Alice Mary 233 H P 143 Harry Proctor 143 Howard Proctor 143 John 233 Mary 12, 143 Mary Proctor 1*, 4*, 12, 17, 143 Thomas 1, 2, 4*, 12, 143*** Thomas Proctor 143 Walter Proctor 143
 
Cheers ZZf001.

I understand from PollyPops that there is a large tomb at the back iof the church just inside the fencing, I looked through the viewing hatch last time I was there - it seems to be a storage area foer the builders, but was unaware of the large tomb at that point - will go and look again.
She'll be pleased you have the inscriptions.

Hi Pollypops - That makes sense now of why it's in a state - Graveyards are uneven - the ground does subside after a time - It's nice to Health & Safety means staff have to be careful - but volunteers sort it out at their own risk!
 
I have found the Ryland grave. Please get in touch.
Fentham
Hi Thanks very much for your offer of help. I am going to email you now.
I would edit your post and remove your email address from this thread - they advise us not to post email addresses on here. You can always send them in an IM to anyone that needs it.
I have already added it to my address book.
Thank you
Polly
 
Hi. I'm not sure if this post is still monitored - I am looking for the grave of Catherine Searl. Buried at St Barnabas in 1934. Does anyone know if the grave still exists?
Many thanks
Paul
 
Hi. I'm not sure if this post is still monitored - I am looking for the grave of Catherine Searl. Buried at St Barnabas in 1934. Does anyone know if the grave still exists?
Many thanks
Paul
See posts 10 + 12 - Fentham has details of Inscriptions - his email address is also mentioned
 
I have some interest in graveyards having been recently involved in the restoration of the graveyard at St Marys, Moseley [more specifically recording the memorial inscriptions & researching their family histories].

The comments made in 2010 [yes, I know it's a long time ago] about St Barnabus are probably unfair. I think the churchyard was a "closed churchyard" & the responsibility of the local authority not the church. The responsility for maintaining individual graves rests [legally] with the owner of the grave not the church. Most churches these days are run on a shoestring & don't have the resources for a major restoration of their churchyard. St Barnabus would have given the required 8 months notice back in the day that they intended to carry out work in the churchyard. Where were the relatives, local community and volunteers then? Too easy to criticize but opt out of helping.

St Barnabus churchyard as mentioned suffers from serious subsidence and is dangerous to work in.

The monumental inscriptions record mentioned by Fentham is still available from the BMSGH or the Midlands Ancestry site as a downloadable file at £11.50.

The Good News: this is copied from St Barnabus website:

St. Barnabas Churchyard Renovation Project

This is to advise the public that there are future plans for parts of the churchyard to be renovated in 2020. Excessive green overgrowth and brambles will need to be cleared to enable old graves to be catalogued. We intend where possible to keep all safe and in scripted markers and headstones on site, even if it’s not possible to keep them in their original position.
For all queries please email: [email protected]

Possibly delayed by pandemic but I wish them luck with their project. If you are in the area, take a look at the graveyard at St Marys, Moseley to see what can be achieved with Heritage Lottery Funding.
 
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