A wander around the dead centre of the Jewellery Quarter

I had to run a few errands in town on Monday, so I thought I’d make the most of the 3 hours free parking in the supermarket at the end of Ladywood Middleway and have a mooch around the Jewellery Quarter.

Once I’d done all my jobs in town, I set off down Newhall Street, past the BT tower.

The BT tower seen from Newhall Street.

At 140m high, the tower is the tallest structure in Birmingham, a landmark for Bummies finding their way home to the city. The tower was built in the 1960’s and is square shaped as opposed to the usual round shape of these towers., which were installed to relay phone signals around the country. The curved corners deflect the wind and keep the tower stable in high winds. Not uncommon with tall urban buildings, a pair of peregrine falcons has taken up residence on the tower.

Further down Newhall Street I come to the old Assay Office, the Birmingham anchor assay mark etched into the windows.

The Assay Office is where hallmarks are stamped onto jewellery and precious metals to certify their authenticity. The Birmingham Assay Office has a fascinating website which explains all you need to know about hallmarks and the history of Birmingham’s assay office. It seems a bit strange that landlocked Birmingham has an anchor as its assay mark. Apparently the story goes that Birmingham and Sheffield were both in the process of having their own assay offices in 1773. Until then, goods had to be taken to Chester or London to be hallmarked and ran the risk of being damaged or even stolen by highwaymen. The meetings prior to the inauguration of these new assay offices were held at a pub called the Crown and Anchor on the Strand in London. It is thought that the allocation of the assay marks was determined by the toss of a coin, with Sheffield being allocated the crown and Birmingham the anchor. Sheffield have since adopted the Yorkshire rose as their assay mark. The assay office relocated to new purpose built premises on Moreton Street in the Jewellery Quarter in 2015 and the old assay office is now a creative office space and innovation hub.

The new Assay Office

I turned the corner into Charlotte Street, glancing up and seeing this chap sitting on a ledge.

Peaky Blinders inspired sculpture by Paul Margetts, located on Assay Lofts apartments in Charlotte Street, built on the car park of the old Assay Office. The BT tower is in the background.

I carried on through St. Paul’s square heading for the Chamberlain clock (more about Joseph Chamberlain later), which stands at the junction of Warstone Lane, Vyse Street and Frederick Street.

The Chamberlain clock was erected in 1903 to commemorate Joseph Chamberlain’s tour of South Africa after the Boer War.

I was curious as to why the road was called Warstone Lane and then I spotted the glacial erratic just behind the fence, which, as a geologist, got me very excited. I’m going to write a whole blog about the glacial erratics of South Birmingham at some point, as they really are fascinating, but suffice to say that according one of the many information boards around both cemeteries, this boulder was one of the boundary stones that marked the boundary between different areas of the city. This particular rock was a boundary marker between the manors of Aston, Birmingham and Handsworth.

I have to confess that the main reason for wanting a mooch around the Jewellery Quarter is that with Halloween fast approaching at the end of the month, I’ve just created a self striping yarn with a decidedly spooky colour combination. Whilst pondering what to call it, I remembered the two cemeteries of the Jewellery Quarter, Warstone Lane Cemetery and Key Hill Cemetery and decided upon ‘Warstone Lane’ for this particular colour way. I have to confess that I’d never visited either cemetery in the nineteen years I’ve been living in Birmingham, despite driving past them hundreds of times on the adjacent inner ring road. I decided to have an explore and see who I could find, bearing in mind that by this time I had just over an hour to rescue my car from the car park.

The gate lodge building at the Warstone Lane entrance to Warstone Lane cemetery. Like the new assay office it is built from blue bricks, which are a prominent building material around the Jewellery Quarter. The lodge is now privately owned.

I love wandering around cemeteries. There’s something so calm and peaceful about them. These two cemeteries are full of trees and birds and are the final resting place of some of the great and good of Birmingham.

The cemeteries were built in the nineteenth century on the sites of former sand quarries and both contain catacombs. The access doors were set into the faces left after the sand had been extracted.

The catacombs in Warstone Lane cemetery

One of the notable burials I had to track down in Warstone Lane was John Baskerville, creator of the Baskerville font, which is still widely used today, in fact you’re reading it right now! It is the font used on all Second City Yarns packaging and signage.

John Baskerville was a fascinating character. He was born in Wolverley near Kidderminster in 1706. An atheist, he created a new type face which was easier to read than the gothic script in use at the time. Providing people could actually read, this allowed them to read the Bible Baskerville had published with relative ease.

Baskerville lived in a house, Easy Hill, in an area which is now occupied by Centenary Square, where Baskerville House can now be found. He gave instructions that when he died he was to be buried in a specially constructed vault in his garden, as he didn’t want to be buried in consecrated ground. This duly happened when Baskerville died in 1775 . His body remained undisturbed in his garden for 46 years until a canal was constructed through the land in 1821. Baskerville had been buried in a lead-lined coffin and was well preserved, so the new land-owner put Baskerville’s body on public show until the family arranged to have the body reinterred in the crypt of Christ Church, which was located in what is now Victoria Square. Unfortunately for poor old Baskerville, Christ Church was demolished 76 years later in 1897 and his remains were moved for the second time and reinterred in the consecrated catacombs in Warstone Lane cemetery. A plaque marks the spot near to where his body is now interred.

The chapel of St. Michael and All angels used to stand above the catacombs until it was demolished in the 1950’s, having suffered bomb damage in the Second World War. Ingenious Victorian engineering meant that the coffins could be lowered on a hydraulic catafalque from the chapel down into the crypt below. The site of the chapel is now a Garden of Memory.

Bearing in mind I had my car to rescue, I headed over to Key Hill cemetery, just a few yards along the road. This cemetery is full of mature trees and has an even more serene feeling than Warstone Lane cemetery.

Key Hill Cemetery

The catacombs in Key Hill Cemetery

Like Warstone, Key Hill also has catacombs cut into the soft sandstone, the names of those interred in the vaults are inscribed on large headstones outside. The excellent information boards in both cemeteries, which are illustrated with the distinctive line drawings of local artist Thomas Parry, directed me to the Tolkien family grave, where JRR Tolkien’s father, Arthur Reuel Tolkien and other relatives are interred. Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein in South Africa, his father’s banking career moving the family abroad. When Tolkien was three, his mother brought Tolkien and his younger brother back to England for a long holiday. Tolkien’s father was intending to join them, but sadly died before he left South Africa. Tolkien’s maternal grandmother lived in King’s Heath in South Birmingham, so Tolkien’s mother, who by now had no husband and therefore no income, went with her boys to live there. Shortly afterwards the family moved to nearby Sarehole, where Tolkien explored Sarehole Mill and Moseley Bog which would later give inspiration for his fictitious Middle Earth. Tolkien himself is buried in Oxford.

I just had enough time to seek out the grave of Joseph Chamberlain before my parking ran out. Chamberlain was a Member of Parliament and Mayor of Birmingham. He was father of Neville Chamberlain, who was Prime Minister from 1937 to 1940, and Austen Chamberlain who was also an MP and was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1926 for work aimed at ensuring peace between France and Germany. Chamberlain was a great advocate for educational reform and as Mayor of Birmingham promoted many civic improvements for Birmingham, including a safe water supply, gas supply to the city, slum clearances resulting in improved living conditions and the building of parks, libraries, swimming pools and schools. His greatest legacy is probably the University of Birmingham, Chamberlain being regarded as the University’s main founder and its first Chancellor. The University’s Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower, affectionately known as Old Joe, is named in his honour and is the tallest free standing clock tower in the world.

Old Joe

If you want to read further, the Jewellery Quarter Cemeteries Project website provides a wealth of fascinating information on both these historic cemeteries.