Beyond the Headstones: My Ongoing Adventures at Sutton Coldfield Cemetery.

Some research projects begin with a name on a family tree. This one began somewhere I have known since childhood, and has gradually grown into something much bigger than I expected.

Sutton Coldfield Cemetery on Rectory Road holds a personal connection for me. I have family buried there, and over the years I have visited often as a relative and family historian. Long before Stories In The Branches, I was wandering its paths, looking for ancestors and photographing memorials.

These days, those visits involve rather more notebooks, photographs and questions!

Putting names back on the map

My ongoing cemetery project involves recording graves, photographing memorials and transcribing inscriptions, then comparing what survives on the ground with the burial records and available plans.

It sounds straightforward until you start trying to make everything agree.

During this work, I have come across repeated grave numbers, unexpected changes in numbering and memorials that need further investigation against the registers. Some numbers appear more than once, making the section and other details particularly important when identifying the right plot.

These discrepancies need careful checking. A number that looks wrong at first glance may have an explanation elsewhere in the records, and a headstone alone does not necessarily tell the whole story of a grave.

It has become a slow process of comparing sources, retracing my steps and occasionally admitting that a puzzle will have to wait until another piece of evidence turns up.

As a genealogist, I know how frustrating it can be to have a burial entry but still be unable to find the grave. Building a clearer picture of the cemetery may eventually help other families make that connection.

Watching the cemetery change

Spending so much time there also means noticing its condition more closely.

Overgrowth can conceal memorials, inscriptions become harder to read, and low stones and grave surrounds can gradually disappear beneath grass and accumulated material.

Recently, I compared a photograph I took of my mom in April 2008 with one of myself in the same spot today. I was with her on that earlier visit, searching for an ancestor’s grave. Looking beyond the two of us, the photographs also record changes in how much of the surrounding memorials remains visible.

It is a reminder of the value of those ordinary family photographs. We may take them for one reason, only to discover years later that they have preserved evidence of something else entirely.

Through the doors of the cemetery buildings

The project has also taken me beyond the graves and inside the cemetery’s historic buildings.

With permission from Birmingham City Council, I visited the chapel and lodge with a retired architect to photograph and record their condition. Having known these buildings from the outside for so long, being able to look inside added another dimension to my understanding of the cemetery.

There were surviving details to document, signs of deterioration and reminders of the buildings’ former use. Some areas could not be safely accessed, so recording had to be limited to what we could safely see.

My photographs and notes are helping me put together a record of their current condition. They also provide a starting point for discussing their future.

The chapel, lodge and lychgate are part of the cemetery’s history and character. I want to help raise awareness of them and support efforts to explore how they might be preserved and given a suitable future.

From raising awareness to forming a Friends group

As I shared photographs, observations and concerns through local Facebook pages, other people began getting in touch.

Some had relatives buried in the cemetery. Others remembered visiting over many years, had concerns of their own, or simply wanted to help care for a place that matters to the town.

Those conversations gradually led to the formation of the Friends of Sutton Coldfield Cemetery.

We held our first meeting in October, and we are now working through the practical steps of establishing the group, including a draft constitution, banking arrangements and appointing a Secretary.

Birmingham Open Spaces Forum, known as BOSF, has been a valuable source of encouragement and practical guidance. Having support while we work out how to turn people’s enthusiasm into an organised group has made a real difference.

There is plenty still to arrange, including permissions and volunteer working arrangements. Our shared aim is to bring people together to care for the cemetery, support its heritage and help protect its buildings.

A project still unfolding

My own recording and family history research continues.

There are more graves to document, more records to compare and plenty of stories waiting to be explored. Some visits answer a question; others send me home with three new ones.

What began with family connections and a wish to understand the cemetery better has brought new friendships, unexpected discoveries and an opportunity to help care for somewhere that has been part of my life for decades.

I will be sharing more of those discoveries here on Stories In The Branches as the project progresses. There is certainly no shortage of stories behind these headstones.