The Friends of Key Hill and Warstone Lane Cemeteries
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Key Hill Cemetery is a good example of an early Victorian garden cemetery (opened in 1836).
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The cemetery design makes effective use of a former quarry to produce a varied and picturesque layout with sandstone cliffs, rock-
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The original planting was carried out by a notable local nursery, John Pope & Sons of Handsworth; some of the planting appears to survive.
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The cemetery contains a very good collection of funerary monuments reflecting the social and economic development of Birmingham in the 19th century; it also contains a group of late 19th century pauper or “Guinea graves.”
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WHAT A LIBERTY!
AN IMPORTANT MEMORIAL – LOST TO KEY HILL
It had long been rumoured that one of the memorials at Key Hill once boasted a copy of the Statue of Liberty. Thanks to the detective work of a member of the Friends and a chance encounter with visitors to the cemetery, its existence has finally been proved. Now the race is on to find a way to get this fantastic memorial restored to its former glory.
In October during one of our regular conducted tours of Key Hill, two visitors joined
the group. They were on holiday in England and had come to Key Hill to see if they
could find any reference to the Meredith family. They were related to John Child
Meredith who was believed to have founded a Missionary Society in America which they
still served, being currently based in Germany. They were amused to find that the
memorial was immediately by one of our first stops on the tour, a point at which
the story of the adjacent memorials to Joseph Hall and William Murphy is related
to visitors. After the tour they told the group that the memorial had originally
held a Statue of Liberty and promised to contact the Friends again once they had
returned to Germany. 
There matters rested until another Friend, Chris Summerton, wrote having read about our efforts to get memorials at Key Hill restored. He had uncovered a photograph of the Meredith memorial which he thought might be a candidate for inclusion in the programme and wanted to know if we could help him bring this about.
As will be seen from the photograph, the statue rests on top of a tall, fluted column which in turn rises off a square inscribed base. The second photograph, taken in December 2009 shows that much of the memorial is still on site, although the column and the stature are missing, presumed stolen. Most of the kerbs, corner stones and footstone are still present but have been badly displaced by the adjacent tree.
It can be taken as read that efforts will be made to restore this memorial which
would provide a magnificent centre-
Monumental masons are also being consulted about the likely cost of replacing the missing elements. Not many firms remain who would be able to take on such a complex task and it is likely to be expensive as a result. Fortunately the memorial is close to a path and so access should not be too difficult.
Chris Summerton has promised an article about the family and its memorial for our newsletter in the New Year and hopefully our missionaries will get in contact from Germany to add more to the story.
Monumental masons are also being consulted about the likely cost of replacing the missing elements. Not many firms remain who would be able to take on such a complex task and it is likely to be expensive as a result. Fortunately the memorial is close to a path and so access should not be too difficult.
Chris Summerton has promised an article about the family and its memorial for our newsletter in the New Year and hopefully our missionaries will get in contact from Germany to add more to the story.
This photograph was taken just before Christmas. Note the cap stone which would sit on the inscribed base. The missing pillar and statue would rise up off of this.
Chris Summerton has promised an article about the family and its memorial for our newsletter in the New Year and hopefully our missionaries will get in contact from Germany to add more to the story.
