Main Entrance Icknield Street Key Hill Cemetery 2008

In November 1997, Birmingham City Council in conjunction with the Urban Villages Forum and the government’s regeneration agency, English Partnerships, commissioned a team of consultants led by EDAW Ltd to prepare a plan for an Urban Village in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter. The consultants reported and recommended that the City Council work with English Partnerships to establish a way forward to implement their proposals. In order to bring forward these major projects it was also recommended that this partnership should work with the local businesses and organisations that share a stake in the future of the Jewellery Quarter. Thus, the Jewellery Quarter Urban Village Regeneration Partnership was born.

Why not take a trip down the “ Pavement Trails ” these are walks    developed by groundwork Birmingham, and help a visitor understand more about the history of the Jewellery Quarter.  The Trails have been designed by two sets of artists – Renn and Thacker (Newhall Hill/ Frederick Street Trail) and Laura Potter (Newhall Street/ Graham Street Trail) – to provide visitors with an opportunity to unlock some of the area’s secrets.

A diverse range of niche businesses are hosted within square mile ( see directory ) ranging from Architects, Artists, Sculptors, Illustrators, Glaziers, Web,Graphic and Furniture Designers.

The Jewelley Quarter has a number of its most famous citizens actually buried within its Cemeteries and in particular Key Hill.  Whereas the Warstone Lane Cemetery has John Baskerville (best remembered as a printer and typographer) Birimingham’s oldest Cemetery ” Key Hill ” has the following buried within its grounds. :

Joseph Chamberlain 1836 – 1914  Member of Parliament & Mayor of Birmingham ( plot 610.K ) buried with his two wives (Please see photo gallery)  His legacy : He was the driving force behind the foundation of the Birmingham University and was its first Chancellor. The University’s clock tower is called the Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower or more commonly ‘Old Joe’ or ‘Big Joe’. He is also commemorated by a memorial in Chamberlain Square in central Birmingham. A large iron clock erected in his honour (1903, during his lifetime) stands in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter His Birmingham home, Highbury Hall, is now a civic conference venue and a venue for civil marriages, and is occasionally open to the public.

• Joseph Chamberlain (senior), father of the politician Joseph Chamberlain (plot 622.K)
• John Henry Chamberlain (plot 701.K)
• Robert William Dale (637.K)
• George Dawson (plot 507.O)
• Joseph Gillott (plot 374-375.E)
• Joseph Hinks
• Harriet Martineau (1802 – 1876) (plot 790/I)
• Robert Martineau (d 17 June 1870) (plot 790/I)
• Robert Francis Martineau (d 1909) (plot 790/I)
• Sir Thomas Martineau (1828-1893) (plot 134.K)
• A. Follett Osler (plot 611.K)
• John Skirrow Wright (plot 218.E)
• Edwin Yates
• Alfred Bird (plot 164.H)

So if we look at Personal Injury Claims firstly the sector has continued to
grow since Legal Aid funding was withdrawn in 1999 for personal injury claims
and the government saw fit to replace it with “no win-no fee” agreements or
Conditional Fee Agreements.

You may or may not be aware under such agreements the client pays nothing towards
legal costs if he or she loses the case, but should the result be positive, then
the claimant receives their compensation. Whilst it is true to say that most of
the responsible companies provide clients with 100% of their compensation there
are those that do not – we shall cover this issue

Chamberlain Clock in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter