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St Barnabas Church Erdington

hi fentham and if you notice in the reply i received the vicar only says that she hopes its possable to consider a space outside for the plaque...just sent another email to her asking if the the original one was saved from the fire...what is there to consider??? those who gave up their lives for this country should never be cast aside and forgotton....will follow this with interest now...

lyn
 
Why outside. There will be plenty of room inside. I live in Kings Norton and some years ago the brass plaques on either side of the Lych Gate were stolen. The was a rumpus and they were fortunatey handed in by a kind metal man. These were refurbished and are now on the inside of the church. Replicas have been put back on the Lych Gate.
 
ive just clicked onto the churches link giving info about the actual churchyard and burials...excuse for it being in such a mess is due to lack of access and i really cant believe that they have a statutary fee of £19 to search their records and locate graves...never come accross this before when i have contacted churches for help...
 
That is money making isn't it. When we wanted to look at St. Barnabas burials at the church itself before the new Vicar arrieve we were charged nothing.
 
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had a reply to my 2nd email...so it seems that there is a defintate plan to place a new memorial plaque outside the church..

Hello Lyn,



Thank you for your response. I don't know if you are aware of the extent of
the devastation but the fire was so extreme that it melted the glass of the
windows entirely . I don't need to emphasise therefore that apart from the
safe, absolutely nothing remained of the interior of the building and we
have no records of anything, apart from what were then current wedding and
baptism registers which were in the safe. There were 45 or so tons of
rubble which took nearly 6 months for the builders to remove. The floor was
completely destroyed and we were left with sub ground level brick channels
so the only way you could get from the rear to the front of the church was
via a gangplank constructed by the builders. Therefore to be quite plain,
no memorial plaques remained . Much of the stone of the arches became
powder with the heat and had to be either completely replaced with new stone
or reinforced in other ways.



What I propose in due course would be an appropriate memorial, placed
outside, so that anyone from Erdington could access it, and it would stand
there in memory of those who have died in conflict.



I hope this clarifies the position for you.



With best wishes,

Yours sincerely,

Freda
 
this was the response I got to the same question, about the loss of the War Memorial

I don’t know where you live but those who have attended the Open Days during the two year restoration period will be aware that the layout of the building is now entirely different.
When we have been able to settle in so that we don’t need to have services and occasional offices all over the place, I hope it may be possible to consider an appropriate space outside the building
where there could be a suitable memorial which could be accessed by all people.
So similar to what has been said before, not holding my breath from the tone of the reply!!
Sue
 
I have only just caught up with this thread but would like to add my two penny worth if you don't mind.
I was brought up in Erdington and lived there until my marriage but had no idea that there was a memorial to the War dead in the church because I am a Methodist so worshiped in
Station Road.
As with other towns/villages I think it would be appropriate to have a Memorial on the Green, accessible to everyone.
Perhaps a present resident of Erdington might like to put that to their Parish council. Alberta
 
Alberta, off thread a little, Micks nan went to the Methodist church in Station road too, they were very good to her in her last months, even visiting her over here in tamworth.
Sue
 
I agree with that sentiment. I am surprised that The Green was never chosen years ago. I also grew up in Erdington and married in St. Barnabas etc. I am no longer a resident but I get a lot of information from friends who are still there. The memorial was in the church and I believe there is one ein the Abbey also.
 
Hi All, my grandad is buried in the church yard can't find any info about him anywhere, no stone or records RIP grandad.
 
Hello,
I have the monumental inscriptions for St. Barnabas. If you let me know who your grandad was I will have a look for you. Do you know when he died.
 
Hi Fentham, Thanks for the reply my Grandad was Robert Cleaver died on 1st august 1949. I went into the church they went through the records no luck but he is buried there somewhere. Gazz
 
It would be totally disrespectful to the 138 men named on the original war memorial board if they are not commemorated on a new memorial with THEIR names.
 
Hello

I have looked at the fiche memorials and there is no Robert Cleaver in the index. However there is a Sarah Cleaver died 18 May 1932. Is this a relation, if so it may be that Robert is there. It is the only Cleaver grave mentioned. The grave is situated on the older side entrance from Moor End Lane entrance. On the righthand side somewhere. We went there some years ago to find my husband's nan but the grave was no longer there. I am not sure what they did on the righthand side we were looking at the lefthand side. Did Robert have a mother or wife by the name of Sarah?
 
Thanks to Fentham, who has kindly passed on these photo's of the choir at St Barnabas Church, Erdington. I can only guess the date as being around 1950. I know one or two of these boys, I wonder how many that look at this thread will recognizeimg165.jpgimg167 Church chior names.jpg any that they know. It's a matter of what your long term memory is like to be able to go back 50+ years and still remember names and faces. I have also published the list of names to edit the photo, kindly supplied by Alec Braginton, who,img166.jpg by the way is on the main photo.
 

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Thanks for posting photo of the renovations of the Lynch Gate Frothy. Sat in their so many times and I don't think
any repairs had been carried out over several decades.
 
You forget that church was 90% gutted in that fire, the things that were destroyed in that fire were irreplaceable. Rather then see it demolised and replaced by something like a supermarket I think they have done a wonderful transformation on the place.
The church before the fire had become just a glorified tea shop.Now it's got a new lease of life and welcomed back into the community.
 
And we all see things differently, as we have said before on the forum! Not to my liking with the new spaceship appearance I have to say, but, at least the Church remains with the few pieces that were saved from the fire, so we should be pleased about that!And the gate and grounds are looking better now.
Sue
 
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