Welcome to The Friends of Key Hill Cemetery & Warstone Lane Cemetery
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Welcome to the
Friends of
Key Hill Cemetery &
Warstone Lane Cemetery
Raising funds for grave restoration, preserving our history & caring for the community
Working to protect our historical cemeteries
The Friends of Key Hill Cemetery was established in 2004 by a small group of people, concerned at the deterioration of the cemetery and alarmed at the potential loss of an important part of Birmingham’s Heritage. In 2009 Warstone Lane Cemetery was included, combining both the Jewellery Quarter Cemeteries.
We would like to thank The Jewellery Quarter Cemeteries Project for funding and support over the last 2 years.
Membership and tour enquiries
Tours and volunteering
Through the gates we peer
On the grounds we tread
Every step a story
A secret entombed forever
Laid to rest
In the peaceful garden
Of the grave yard
By J. Keast
Our news and stories
News Subtitle
Frederick WAKELING, Suffragette supporter
Frederick WAKELING 1888-1948 was a supporter of the Women’s Suffrage movement.
Frederick along with his fellow men, dressed up in their wives and sister’s clothes and marched into Birmingham with placards in support for females to have the right to vote .
The suffragettes were firm believers in "Deeds, not words",
Here is a studio photograph of Frederick WAKELING holding a placard dressed in female clothing and holding a "Votes for Women" placard.
Frederick is buried in Key Hill Cemetery.
The famous Warstone or Hoarstone
The Warstone / Hoarstone is a glacial made from the volcanic rock which was carried here from Wales by glacial ice .
The Warstone was used as a Parish boundary where the manors of Birmingham , Aston, and Handsworth met. The stone has been in existence for thousand of years.
Today the stone rests on a plinth and it is situated in Warstone Lane Cemetery , near the Lodge in Warstone Lane .
The plinth that the stone rests on , has the following inscription:
This felsite boulder was deposited near here. by a glacier during the Ice Age: being at onetime used as a parish boundary mark, it was known as the ‘Hoar Stone’ of which the modern War Stone is a corruption”.