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Key Hill Cemetery

  • Thread starter Thread starter Wendy
  • Start date Start date
This has been a depressing weekend for me:( but..........Hey:) i'm a Brummy we will survive:)!!
 
I'm sure you will survive Wendy...but an explanation would be good. It's all very strange, everyone on the committee of The Friends was so friendly, so helpful and seemed totally united in a common cause , so all this must have come as a bit of a shock to both you and Brian.
 
Unfortunately, what people may not know that it had become a situation where the cemetery did not matter, it was the commitee that counted. They acted and appeared to believe that they owned it, when it is actually owned by Birmingham City Council. They wanted their names and faces to be seen, which is not what it is all about. They should have one goal and that is to keep the cemetery from being forgotten and/or destroyed. This was the first aim initially when it all started in October 2003. I should know, it was my big mouth speaking to Carl Chinn that started it all off. Shortie
 
Let's hope something can be sorted out:( it seem's such a shame as so much good work has been done.:) The memorial inscription project is a fantastic piece of work. The help I had with the restoration of my family memorials has been excellent and I will always be grateful to those who made it possible. I will always support the cemetery. Maybe Key Hill Brian will have some news soon:):)
 
Some nice pictures Colin and Brian have made a lovely job of tidying the vault area. The tablets can now be read from the path. I did a quick wash and brush up of the family grave and the flowers around the cemetery are lovely.:)

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100_2408_Vaults.jpg
 
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Thanks for posting the photos Wendy. Key Hill is looking really smart and tidy - being able to read the tablets from the path will be much better for the visitors to the cemetery.
Your family grave is looking lovely too.
Polly :)
 
Sorry for the late reply just got back from swimming.
Dave your photo is of the catacombs. As Polly said a bit further down the path from the vaults.
 
Visited Key Hill on Monday and took the attached photos. The first group are of the memorial to those exhumed in the mid nineties for the metro line. Hopefully the inscriptions will be legible for those searching for names.
I also took a shot of memorials that had been buried and were in the process of being excavated together with a photo of Brian and Colin grafting. I was interested to learn the area where they are working were vaulted graves extending perhaps to the footpath though I always believed them to be common graves.
 
Great photos John, thanks for posting them. Brian and Colin hard at work as usual - The way the cemetery looks is all down to them, they work so hard in there.
Polly :)
 
Hello John - I think I can assist here. These are public, that is so, but they are not graves (ie, earth ones) they are public vaults. Why, I do not know but it may be to do with the ground, as public areas are not usually vaults. My own grandmother's three baby siblings are in there. - Shortie
 
Hi Shortie
Brian told me the public graves in earth at the far end of the catacombs are estimated to be 40 feet deep. Imagine the mechanics of laying one layer of coffins, infilling for the next layer and so on till the graves were full. It does make economical sense to have vaulted graves as the coffins could be stacked on top of each other and the vault sealed between interments. The cemetery was a commercial enterprise with profitability being paramount. You only have to look at how the graves in front of the catacombs were packed closely together to realise every square foot was seen as valuable.
 
Hi John
You may not know me (others on this forum do), but I do know quite a lot about Key Hill. Some of the public graves are certainly 40 ft deep - I also know how they were constructed, but I don't think that those particular ones are like that at all. The ones that were deep are in Section L, some have 250 people in them. I am given to understand from someone who worked there that the vaults had shelves, but I will make further enquiries, as he may have been speaking about the catacomb vaults, which are definitely shelved. The person I am speaking about has been on long term sick, but I will try and fin dout tomorrow if he is able to help with this query. I would certainly like to know a little more about those particular ones. Shortie
 
Great photo's of the uncovered graves John thanks for posting them. Shortie John also knows a lot about the internments at Key Hill and has some first hand knowledge. We are so lucky here to have so many clever people involved in these threads.:)
 
I visited the cemetery today and it looked lovely with the bluebells out.:)

Key_Hill_in_spring_.JPG
 
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Thanks for posting the photos Wendy :) it is lovely to see all the bluebells out. I will have to visit soon - hopefully while they are still in flower.
polly :)
 
Thanks for posting the great photos of the bluebells, Wendy. The whole place must look amazing. How did the bulbs that were planted last Autumn do? I may have missed any photos. Thanks again.
 
Hi Jennyann, The bulbs did really well considering the squirrels dug a lot of them up and had a feast!
There are some photos on posts #363 #371 #380
They did look lovely when they were out - I hope the squirrels leave them alone now so they come up next year.
Polly :)
 
Lovely photos, Wendy. In the middle picture, is that new damage to a headstone, yet again? (Right hand corner at the bottom). Shortie
 
To be honest I am not sure if it's new damage one to check on my next visit.
 
I wondered that when I saw the photo as the stone looks very clean where it is broken :( I was going to have look through some of my photos to see if I had any taken there a while ago so that I could compare them.
Polly
 
Just to put your minds at rest the photo in the foreground with the name Hirons has been in two halves for years. I have a photo of the grave taken two years ago half buried in two pieces. The grave has been put back upright and the other half laid near by. It has probably been cleaned which is why it looks like a new break. There is also a child buried in this grave named Marian Gascoigne just in case someone recognises the names.
 
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