Warstone Lane Cemetery
Warstone Lane Cemetery is one of two Grade II listed cemeteries located near the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham UK, the other is Key Hill Cemetery which BirminghamIU have also investigated. Warstone Lane Cemetery was first opened in 1848 by the Birmingham Church of England Cemetery Company, Key Hill Cemetery was opened 12 years earlier. They were both acquired by Birmingham City Council in the 1950’s. Neither cemeteries have been accepting new burials since the early 1980’s with the exception of some family members wishing to be buried with their loved ones. Despite efforts from a few people to maintain them, both cemeteries have unfortunately fallen into a bad state of repair and have largely been abandoned.
Unlike Key Hill Cemetery, Warstone Lane Cemetery has a reputation of being haunted by a number of ghosts / spirits. People have reported seeing the ghost of an unknown woman sitting on one particular grave stone deep within the grave yard. Sightings of a white lady has also been reported and according the paranormal database has a habit of passing through parked cars nearby the cemetery. In recent years the cemetery has been used as a location for organised ghost walks. This cemetery has catacombs which are on two stories around a centre circle. Unfortunately due to vandalism and homeless people in recent years, the entrances to the actual burial chambers have been sealed, this is now the case with most catacombs throughout the country including those at the neighbouring Key Hill Cemetery.
Birmingham Investigators of the Unknown have visited Warstone Lane Cemetery on a number of occasions. We all felt heavy throughout various locations, especially in the lower catacomb area. We took various photographs and caught lots of light anomalies which certainly don’t appear to be dust particles. Our most interesting photograph was a possible apparition, see the first four photos below for more details along with many more of our favourite photos we caught at the location.
Being close to an area with a reputation for high crime, drug abuse and homelessness, security and safety was a major issue at night, even more so than at Key Hill Cemetery as there’s lots of different ways into the location and more places to hide. In case we needed to leave quickly, we brought minimum equipment which included lots of lighting, radios and a digital camera. We had to be on our guard at all times. This made investigating very difficult, especially for Peter who is our psychic as none of us could relax having to watch out for dangerous intruders.
