Warstone Lane Cemetery

File:EPW001109 ENGLAND (1920). Hockley Station, Warstone Lane and General Cemeteries area, Birmingham (Warstone Lane Cemetery - Birmingham Mint).png

The foundation stone for the chapel (demolished 1954) was laid on 6 April 1847. The blue brick gate lodge building, designed by J. R. Hamilton and J. M. Medland and built in 1847–8, survives, and is a Grade II listed building.{{harvnb|Foster|2005|p=168}}{{NHLE |num=1034370 |desc=Cemetery Lodge |grade=II |access-date=9 November 2015}} The cemetery is itself Grade II on the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.{{NHLE |num=1001545 |desc=Warstone Lane Cemetery |grade=II |access-date=9 November 2016}} The cemetery was originally reserved for members of the established Church of England, whereas Key Hill (opened in 1836) was non-denominational, and was therefore favoured by nonconformists.

In the Birmingham Blitz of World War II St Michaels and All Saints chapel in Warstone Cemetery was damaged beyond repair and later razed. Meanwhile, on the night of 11 December 1940, all but the tower and classical west portico of St Thomas' Church, Bath Row, was destroyed by German bombs. The church was not rebuilt. The grounds were laid out for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 when the gravestones were removed and the dead reinterred at Warstone Lane Cemetery. The gardens were re-designed as the St. Thomas's Peace Garden in 1995 in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II.

A comprehensive list of memorial inscriptions is being prepared by The Jewellery Quarter Research Group, to be published on its website.

A campaign group, The Friends of Key Hill and Warstone Lane Cemeteries, seeks to preserve and protect the cemetery.

• Warrulan (circa 1835–1855) – an Aboriginal Australian, brought to England in 1845
• Joseph Allday (1798–1861) – radical politician
• Dr Pye Chavasse (1810–1879) – medical author
• Harry Gem (1819–1881) – lawn tennis pioneer
• John Postgate (1820–1881) – surgeon and food safety campaigner
• Clement Mansfield Ingleby (1823–1886) – solicitor and poet
• James Cooper (1840–1889) – soldier awarded the Victoria Cross
• John Baskerville (1706–1775) – manufacturer, reinterred here in 1897: an atheist

There are also buried in the cemetery 51 Commonwealth servicemen of World War I and 13 from World War II. A Screen Wall memorial, by a Cross of Sacrifice, lists those whose graves are not marked by headstones.{{cite web |url= http://www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery/45006/BIRMINGHAM%20(WARSTONE%20LANE)%20CEMETERY |title=Birmingham (Warstone Lane) Cemetery |work=Cemetery Details |publisher=Commonwealth War Graves Commission}}

File:Warstone Lane Cemetery OS 25 inch 1903.jpg

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book |last=Foster |first=Andy |year=2005 |title=Birmingham |series=Pevsner Architectural Guides |place=New Haven, CT |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=0300107315 }}
• {{cite book |last=Haddleton |first=Marie Elizabeth |year=1987 |title=The Jewellery Quarter – History and Guide |place=Birmingham |publisher=Y.B.A. Publications |isbn=0951310801 }}

{{commons category}}

• {{NHLE |num=1034370 |desc=Cemetery Lodge |grade=II }}
• [http://www.jqrt.org/ The Jewellery Quarter Research Trust] – includes plan of graves at Warstone Lane
• [https://friendsofkeyhillcemeterywarstonelanecemetery.wordpress.com/ Friends of Key Hill Cemetery & Warstone Lane Cemetery]

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Category:Anglican cemeteries in the United Kingdom

Category:Cemeteries in Birmingham, West Midlands

Category:Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries in England

Category:Grade II listed buildings in the West Midlands (county)