Bid to restore historic cemetery

Campaigners are appealing to the public to raise £1.5m to restore Birmingham's oldest cemetery.

The burial ground at Key Hill in the Jewellery Quarter area is overgrown and has been vandalised.

The inventor of Bird's custard, Alfred Bird, former MP Joseph Chamberlain and Joseph Hinks, who perfected Duplex oil lamps, are among those buried there.

The Friends of Key Hill Cemetery group want the city council to apply for lottery money to help to save it.

Campaign backed

Chairman Pauline Roberts said: "It is the most historic cemetery in Birmingham but it is the least known - even in its own vicinity.

"We have to save this cemetery. It is vital to the city's history.

"It houses the remains of people that have changed the face of England, not just Birmingham."

The group says the city council's bereavement services, The Victorian Society, The Civic Society and the Jewellery Quarter Regeneration Fund are backing the campaign.