Residents of Key Hill
Key Hill Cemetery Hockley Birmingham
Pen Museum link with Hockley Cemeteries:
The museum's main focus is the Birmingham pen trade and its place as the World centre of the trade, but has also developed as an integral part of the Jewellery Quarter.
Cemetery Links..
An area with a rich industrial, social and technological history which over the years have established a rich heritage. Life, death and hard work have formed a large part of the history of many local organisations including the pen trade and research revealed numbers of people involved in the pen trade were buried in the local cemeteries Key Hill and Warstone Lane. Joseph Gillott, John Sheldon, John Mitchell to name but a few. Links have therefore grown up between the Museum and the Friends of the Cemeteries organisation with some volunteers in common, cemetery records housed at the Pen Museum and a mutual interest in revealing more shared knowledge and records.
Brian Jones MBE
9th October 2012
Poem by Robert Stanyard
Residents of Key Hill
This is by way of introduction to some of the residents of Key Hill.
The famed and the worthy, of another time, if you Will.
Joseph Chamberlain, a politician of much acclaim.
Alfred Bird, was the man who gave custard a brand name.
Joseph Gillott, a well-known man, a manufacturer of steel pens.
William Mitchell, of the same trade and in law not close friends.
Harriet Martineau, author and innovator in women's rights.
James Hinks, the patentee of the gas lamp that gave the people light.
John Sheldon, a man before his time bringing us the famed Escritoir
William Butler, who founded M & B to whom many have drunk a jar.
Marie Bethell Beauclerc, was the first teacher in Pitman shorthand.
Sir Thomas Martineau, as Birmingham's Mayor helped the city expand.
John D Mullins, though not so known was once Birmingham's Chief Librarian.
Reverend Manning, Chaplain of Key Hill for over fifty years died an octogenarian.
Thomas Avery, Scale manufacturer and many years a Politician.
Constance C. W. Naden, a Poet and Philosopher of great ambition.
Marjorie Clay, violinist played lead in the Birmingham Symphony.
William Tranter, gun maker with his large gun making manufactory.
George Dawson, was a religious leader and social reformer.
John Skirrow Wright, as a J.P and M.P was a transformer.
Reverend Robert Aikenhead, for his gospel he lived and died.
Henry Palethorpe, butcher made his sausages and pork pies with pride.
So if you are ever strolling through Key Hill keep these names in your head.
Walk quietly dispose of your litter in the bins provided, and try not to wake the dead.
Reproduced by kind permission of Robert Stanyard
