Key Hill Cemetery is one of two cemeteries in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter.

Key Hill Cemetery was born in 1836, courtesy of the newly formed General Cemetery Company.
Its birth was because of an unsuspected surge in the population of the town leading to limited availability of burial grounds.

Since then, laid to rest are many of Birmingham’s famous names that shaped the city into what it is today.
The likes of former mayor Joseph Chamberlain, preacher George Dawson and Alfred Bird of Bird’s Custard had major roles in the area as they built their reputation in the working world.

They rest alongside other famous names, such as:

– Marie Bethall Beauclerc: The first female reporter in Britain
– Constance Naden: A poet, philosopher and scientist
– William Murphy: Protestant preacher and public agitator
– Joseph Tangye: Founder of the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
– Harriet Martineau: Early female sociologist and ancestor of the Duchess of Cambridge
– Joseph Gillott: Pen maker
– William Mitchell: Pen maker
– John Skirrow Wright: Postal order inventor at heart of Birmingham

The graveyard became a popular place because of the increasing number of non-conformists who assisted in transforming Birmingham into a colourful city during the nineteenth-century.

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