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Brandwood End Cemetery
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Brandwood End Cemetery
Brandwood End Cemetery is a cemetery located in the Brandwood ward of Birmingham, England.
Until the early 19th century the Church of England church yards and burial grounds were the only major places available for burials. By that time these ancient burial grounds were becoming overcrowded, causing the burials to become shallower and the graveyards to be considered as unsanitary health hazards.[citation needed] Added to this was the massive increase in the population, particularly in the expanding urban industrial areas, which increased the demand for burial space. The situation was further exacerbated by the increased death rate during periodic epidemics such as cholera, occurring unchecked within these overcrowded urban environments.[citation needed]
These burial problems were resolved with the development of ‘public cemeteries for all’. This was initially not under the direction of local or central government, but under Joint Stock Companies for profit. For example, Key Hill Cemetery in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter, founded in 1834, was a local example of such a Joint Stock venture.[citation needed]
However, these efforts by private enterprise could not, by themselves, solve the overall problem,[citation needed] and as a direct result of the cholera epidemics of 1831–32 and 1848–49 central government had to take action. Between 1852 and 1857 a series of Burial Acts were passed, which established a national system of public cemeteries under the direction of local Burial Boards. These Boards were responsible for the interment of the dead; could build and manage new cemeteries; and, charge the expenses to the Poor Rate.
In the late 19th century, King's Norton Rural District Council was one of the largest administrative districts surrounding Birmingham.[citation needed] As Birmingham expanded in the 1880s and its population increasingly settled in this parish due to the new rail and tram routes, it created increasing pressure on the existing church burial grounds. These, like others across the country, were full and unable to expand. To resolve this problem using the new legislation, the Kings Norton RDC resolved to establish a cemetery, in the north of the district where population growth was greatest, but experienced some difficulty in finding a suitable site.[citation needed]
In 1892, the first plan was to build a cemetery in Billesley, in the parish of Yardley, but this was abandoned due to objections by the Yardley authorities to the scheme.[citation needed] In 1895, an area of farmland was finally acquired[citation needed] for the purpose of building a new cemetery in Brandwood End, near Kings Heath, within the parish of Kings Norton.
Brandwood End Cemetery was therefore one of the later Victorian Cemeteries, and was formally opened on 13 April 1899, by Mr George Tallis, the Chairman of the Local Cemetery Committee; the cemetery being subsequently incorporated within the City of Birmingham in 1911, under the Greater Birmingham Act, when the city expanded its boundaries.
The two semi-detached mortuary chapels stand at the highest point in the cemetery grounds, and provide a dramatic central focus for the cemetery. The chapels are joined by a carriage entrance archway (a porte-cochčre), which is surmounted by a tower and spire. The twin chapels were designed by Mr J. Brewin Holmes, a Birmingham architect, and are built in the Gothic style with Art Nouveau details from red brick and terracotta. The mortuary chapel on the east was for Non-conformists and the chapel on the west consecrated for Anglican services. The chapels are mirror images of each other, containing: a chancel, a coffin chamber, a vestry and an underground heating chamber. There is also a Cemetery Lodge, built from red brick and terracotta, which contained the cemetery offices and living quarters for the cemetery Superintendent.
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Brandwood End Cemetery
Brandwood End Cemetery is a cemetery located in the Brandwood ward of Birmingham, England.
Until the early 19th century the Church of England church yards and burial grounds were the only major places available for burials. By that time these ancient burial grounds were becoming overcrowded, causing the burials to become shallower and the graveyards to be considered as unsanitary health hazards.[citation needed] Added to this was the massive increase in the population, particularly in the expanding urban industrial areas, which increased the demand for burial space. The situation was further exacerbated by the increased death rate during periodic epidemics such as cholera, occurring unchecked within these overcrowded urban environments.[citation needed]
These burial problems were resolved with the development of ‘public cemeteries for all’. This was initially not under the direction of local or central government, but under Joint Stock Companies for profit. For example, Key Hill Cemetery in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter, founded in 1834, was a local example of such a Joint Stock venture.[citation needed]
However, these efforts by private enterprise could not, by themselves, solve the overall problem,[citation needed] and as a direct result of the cholera epidemics of 1831–32 and 1848–49 central government had to take action. Between 1852 and 1857 a series of Burial Acts were passed, which established a national system of public cemeteries under the direction of local Burial Boards. These Boards were responsible for the interment of the dead; could build and manage new cemeteries; and, charge the expenses to the Poor Rate.
In the late 19th century, King's Norton Rural District Council was one of the largest administrative districts surrounding Birmingham.[citation needed] As Birmingham expanded in the 1880s and its population increasingly settled in this parish due to the new rail and tram routes, it created increasing pressure on the existing church burial grounds. These, like others across the country, were full and unable to expand. To resolve this problem using the new legislation, the Kings Norton RDC resolved to establish a cemetery, in the north of the district where population growth was greatest, but experienced some difficulty in finding a suitable site.[citation needed]
In 1892, the first plan was to build a cemetery in Billesley, in the parish of Yardley, but this was abandoned due to objections by the Yardley authorities to the scheme.[citation needed] In 1895, an area of farmland was finally acquired[citation needed] for the purpose of building a new cemetery in Brandwood End, near Kings Heath, within the parish of Kings Norton.
Brandwood End Cemetery was therefore one of the later Victorian Cemeteries, and was formally opened on 13 April 1899, by Mr George Tallis, the Chairman of the Local Cemetery Committee; the cemetery being subsequently incorporated within the City of Birmingham in 1911, under the Greater Birmingham Act, when the city expanded its boundaries.
The two semi-detached mortuary chapels stand at the highest point in the cemetery grounds, and provide a dramatic central focus for the cemetery. The chapels are joined by a carriage entrance archway (a porte-cochčre), which is surmounted by a tower and spire. The twin chapels were designed by Mr J. Brewin Holmes, a Birmingham architect, and are built in the Gothic style with Art Nouveau details from red brick and terracotta. The mortuary chapel on the east was for Non-conformists and the chapel on the west consecrated for Anglican services. The chapels are mirror images of each other, containing: a chancel, a coffin chamber, a vestry and an underground heating chamber. There is also a Cemetery Lodge, built from red brick and terracotta, which contained the cemetery offices and living quarters for the cemetery Superintendent.
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