Birmingham - Witton Cemetery

By bus: No. 65 'bus from Corporation Street, Birmingham to Streetly Road near to Short Heath Road, Erdington.

By car: Leave Birmingham City Centre on the A38(M). Follow the signs to Erdington, A5127. At the first roundabout take the first turn into Reservoir Road, A4040. At the traffic light controlled junction turn right into Streetly Road. The starting point is on the left. Post Code B23 7AL

[1]  Come out of the centre and turn right along Streetly Road. Cross several side streets, and then the major junction with Marsh Hill. Walk towards the campus gate. The signs show that the Campus brings together Stockland Green School, a comprehensive with technology status that is striving to improve its results; the Josiah Mason sixth form college, named after the pen manufacturer who founded Erdington Orphanage in 1868; and a Community Leisure Centre.

Go through the gate (see next paragraph if it is closed) to the footway on the right hand side of the Campus access road. Keeping right follow the footway beside the Methodist Church fence, past the side and around the end of the Technology College building, and into an area laid out with games pitches. Continue on, past the Learning Centre building, to the far right hand corner of the games area then turn right onto a wide tarmac path. Follow the path round a left hand bend and beside an access road to the Campus gate on Marsh Hill. 

If, at the start of the walk, the Campus gate is closed turn right back into Slade Rd and first left into Stockland Rd. At the end of the cul-de-sac turn right into the footpath that was Kerby Rd and follow it to the dual carriageway. Turn left into Marsh Hill and go down to the Campus gate. 

[2] Cross Marsh Hill, using the pedestrian lights outside the Campus gate, and turn left into it. Continue quite steeply down Marsh Hill, cross Ransom Road then turn right into this quiet residential street. Follow Ransom Road around a left hand bend and past Hidson Road on the right to the T-junction. Turn left into Woolmore Road, follow it past Marsh Hill School to the T-junction and turn right, back into Marsh Hill. Keep going downhill, across Ivyfield Rd and past the Hare & Hounds pub (on the right, built in the 1930s). Just before the road crosses Witton Brook (A) turn right through a fence gap onto a wide tarmac path. 

Follow the tarmac path along the edge of a grassy strip beside the Brook. Take the first left path over the brook and go through a fence gap onto Gipsy Lane. Cross the lane and go ahead up Farley Road. Cross Brookvale Park Road and Yerbury Road (use ramps on the side roads where dropped kerbs are lacking) and continue along Farley Road to the T-junction.

To cut the walk short instead of turning left over the brook continue along the path up to Witton Lakes and follow the route description from part way through point [5].

[3] Cross The Ridgeway, using the pedestrian island, and turn right into it beside the cemetery wall. This 2 mile long rose-red brick wall, the longest in the Midlands, is a listed structure. Follow the wall to the east gate on the left. The original cast iron gates have Gothic panels and fleur-de-lis ornaments. Turn left into Witton Cemetery (closes 4pm in the winter, 5pm in the summer). 

This is Birmingham's oldest and largest municipal cemetery, opened in 1863 to relieve the overcrowded and unhygenic central churchyards. It was sited well outside the town (then) on a ridge overlooking the Tame Valley, and laid out in a rectangular grid around the main central (North-South) and axial (East-West and straight ahead of you) avenues. Consecrated ground lay to the south, unconsecrated to the north, and in the top corner a separate plot was reserved for Jewish burials. The buildings - lodges, chapels etc - by R Clark are in Gothic style using Hampstead stone. 

Follow the axial avenue ahead through lime trees towards the cross shaped memorial at its far end. After passing two cross-paths cross the central avenue. At its left end, above a wide flight of steps, stands the Anglican chapel with a tall tower and spire; at the opposite (right) end of the central avenue another flight of steps shows where the Non-conformist chapel once stood this was demolished in 1980. Continue on past another cross-path to the memorial cross. This symbol to the Great War dead is inset with a sword. From the memorial look down through the stepped avenue of silver birch trees to the west gate, flanked by lodges.

[4] The main route now goes back along the axial avenue (see next section, from point [5]). But if time allows the cemetery tour (Additional Point of Interest Information) is worthwhile. This will add roughly one mile, or 20 minutes to the route time.

[5] To return by the main route, from the memorial cross, go back along the axial avenue to the east gate and turn right into The Ridgeway. Retrace the outward route back along The Ridgeway, left down Farley Road, across Gypsy Lane into the greenway and left beside Witton Brook to walk up towards the Witton Lakes. Once you reach the lakes bear right and walk alongside the two lakes.

[6] At the end of the second lake, bear left and cross the brook. Follow the path up to Perry Common Road where you turn right, following the road as it becomes Short Heath Road. Shortly you will come to Streetly Road where you turn right to return to the starting point.

Cemetery Tour

a)  From the memorial cross go back along the axial avenue and turn right into the first cross-path. On the right (set back) is a grassy area where the parishioners of St Marys Church, Birmingham, were reinterred in 1929. Within the plot are an obelisk to Hester d.1794, wife of the itinerant Preacher James Rogers; a headstone to Thomas Beilby d.1826, an engraver; and a chest tomb to John Casebow Barrett d.1881, vicar of St Marys for 40 years. Turn next left, then next right and follow the central avenue to the steps. Ascend the steps to the front of the Anglican chapel, or (wheelchair users) turn right and take the drive curving left up to it. The ornate leafy carvings around the tower doorway are enlivened by a dove and dragons.

b)    Go clockwise around the chapel, keeping to the outside edge of the drive that encircles it, to see the planned vistas and some notable monuments: 

@ 1 o'clock - a large red obelisk (by steps) in memory of Thomas Standbridge d.1869, Town Clerk of Birmingham for 15 years.

@ 2 o'clock - a chest tomb with scrolls (by corner) to the Cattell family c1862.

@ 5 o'clock - a large pillar with cloaked urn (front row) to the Unite family; George Richard Unite d.1896 was a silversmith.

- a tall red pillar with cloaked urn (front row) to the Goffe family; James Goffe d.1893 produced mineral water from his artesian well in Allison St, Digbeth.

@ 6 o'clock - (rear of the chapel) go 100m along the central drive to, and back from, the War Memorial (lhs). The screen wall mentions Private G A Ravenhill who won a V.C. in the Boer War; his medal was forfeited, after a theft conviction, and belatedly reinstated.

@ 7 o'clock - a tall pillar with Greek pediment (front row) to the Deeley family c1860s, its lettering barely readable, the urn smashed to the ground.

- an Egyptian art-nouveau style column (front row) to the Holyoake family; George Jacob Holyoake d.1906 created the secularist movement and was the last person to be convicted for blasphemy in public.

- a tall red obelisk (set back) to the Stone family; Benjamin Stone d.1882 was a glass maker and father of Sir John Benjamin Stone, the noted photographer.

@ 8 o'clock - a broad view south-west over the Tame Valley to Birmingham city centre.
 

c)    Continue clockwise back past the front of the chapel and turn next left into the cross-path. Follow the path ahead past the drive curving left, past a right hand path and over a cross-path. Turn next left into the axial avenue and next right along the central avenue. On the right (after first cross-path), behind an area of children's graves with teddy bear headstones, is a walled garden in memory of Birmingham civilians who fell victim to wartime bombing, and a hedged enclosure around a group of military graves. Continue ahead to the cross-path at the foot of the steps. On the left a lighthouse memorial with headless seagulls recalls Ernest Beston d.1933, a bookmaker (count the number of windows etc to find his lucky number).

d) Just before the steps turn left and follow the drive curving right, past an incoming path on the left, up to the higher level. On the left is a crowded group of monuments to C19 Birmingham manufacturers:

- a tall stone obelisk (set back) to John Walsh Walsh d.1864, maker of quality glassware.

- a red obelisk (set back) to the Grinsell family; John Grinsell d.1897 founded the renowned silversmiths John Grinsell & Sons.

- a red obelisk (front row) to the McCardie family; Joseph William McCardie d.1877 was a pearly button maker, his son William Joseph McCardie d.1939 the first provincial anaesthetist, his son Sir Henry Alfred McCardie d.1933 a brilliant judge who shot himself.

- a roll edged headstone (front row) to Elizabeth and William Potts d.1869/1884 listing a sad tale of infant death.

- an elaborate casket with ancient tiled lettering (front row) to John Evans d.1872.

- a huge black obelisk (set well back) to the Avery family of weighing machine makers; William Henry Avery d.1874 led the firm in its heyday, his son William Beilby Avery d.1908 was a partner in the firm, stamp collector and keeper of a Barbary Ape.

- a large stone pillar with cloaked urn (set back) to the Mansfield family; George Storer Mansfield d.1837 was patron of Spring Hill College (Moseley) and Mansfield College (Oxford) for the training of Congregationalist ministers.

- a black marble Gothic headstone (front row) to the Baker family; Daniel Baker d.1897 was a pen maker and co-founder of the Bak-Fin Company. He left some of his money to the workforce.

- a large pillar with leafy carvings (set back) to Arthur Phelps d.1920, soldier in the Bombay Army, President of the Anti-Vaccination League and champion of homeopathy.

 - a roll edged headstone (front row) to Elizabeth and William Potts d.1869/1884 listing a sad tale of infant death. 

- an elaborate casket with ancient tiled lettering (front row) to John Evans d.1872.

- a huge black obelisk (set well back) to the Avery family of weighing machine makers; William Henry Avery d.1874 led the firm in its heyday, his son William Beilby Avery d.1908 was a partner in the firm, stamp collector and keeper of a Barbary Ape.

- a large stone pillar with cloaked urn (set back) to the Mansfield family; George Storer Mansfield d.1837 was patron of Spring Hill College (Moseley) and Mansfield College (Oxford) for the training of Congregationalist ministers.

- a black marble Gothic headstone (front row) to the Baker family; Daniel Baker d.1897 was a pen maker and co-founder of the Bak-Fin Company. He left some of his money to the workforce.

- a large pillar with leafy carvings (set back) to Arthur Phelps d.1920, soldier in the Bombay Army, President of the Anti-Vaccination League and champion of homeopathy.

e) Next to the manufacturers monuments a red granite obelisk marks the reburial of fifteen hundred coffins, moved here from Birmingham's Old Meeting House in 1882 to make room for improvements at New Street Station. The slabs and vaults, some dating from the late 1700s, are arranged to reflect the original layout. 

f) Now retrace your way back down the curving drive to the bottom of the steps and turn right back into the central avenue. At the next cross-path bear right into the wide drive. On the right a red granite pillar with cloaked urn marks the final pitch of Archie Hunter d.1894, the famous captain of Aston Villa. Turn left at the junction of paths, next right into the axial avenue, and go back to the memorial cross. 

Photo - Witton Lakes © (Adrian Bailey) / CC BY-SA 2.0