Spectre hangs over cemetery

Mar 20 2008 By Poppy Brady

GHOSTLY tales are being used to promote the very real needs of Birmingham's most historic cemetery.

Friends of Key Hill Cemetery, in Hockley, have laucnhed a new drive to recruit members to help it survive.

The cemetery, next to the Jewellery Quarter, has been called the "Westminster Abbey of the Midlands" because of the number of famous people buried there.

They include Joseph Chamberlain, a Mayor of Birmingham, MP and cabinet minister; Alfred Bird, the chemist who invented Bird's Custard; Thomas Avery, founder of Avery weighing machines at Smethwick; and John Henderson, who built London's Crystal Palace.

Birmingham author and historian Peter Leather will be reading selections from his book, Hidden City Haunted City - including one about Key Hill - at an event to launch a new membership drive by the Friends.

Since their launch four years ago the Friends have achieved much in terms of raising awareness of the cemetery, which closed to burials in 1982 and was listed as a historic landscape in 1996.

"We're very proud of what we've done in a relatively short time," said Friends chairman Pauline Roberts.

"Now we need to push on. At present we have a lot of members who have ancestors buried at Key Hill, but since there have been no new graves for so long, they are necessarily quite old.

"What we need are younger, more energetic people to help with the maintenance and restoration."

The membership drive will be launched at 12.30pm on Saturday, March 29, at the Red Baboon (formerly the Tarnished Halo) pub in Ludgate Hill, near St Paul's Square.

Then the lights go down for the ghost story readings - and signed copies of the book will be on sale afterwards.

People who wish to become members of the Friends (£10 individuals, £15 couples, £20 groups) can then stay on for the annual meeting and find out more about group activities.

* To attend the event and to order food if required, ring Pauline on 07799 040455 or e-mail ladyofkeyhill@google mail.com. The Friends' website is at www.friendsofkeyhillcemetery.co.uk.