


Feeling much better after a bit of gravehunting, I paused at the statue of? I was not able to read the inscription, so decided to rather look that one up when I got home. It turns out that this is the statue of William Humble Ward, 11th Baron Ward of Birmingham, Viscount Ednam and Earl of Dudley. He died of pneumonia on the 7th of May 1885 at Dudley House in London. That could explain why I did not find him in the two graveyards I visited. I often wonder how relevant a statue like this is, especially in the light of the furore going on in South Africa about the statue of Cecil John Rhodes at Cape Town University.
There are two churches in the area of the city where I was, St Edmunds is known as the “Bottom Church”, as opposed to St Thomas’s parish church in High Street which is known as “Top Church”. Naturally I did not know this at the time. I was hoping to make the trek up the road to more or less where they would have placed a war memorial if there was one. With a bit more time on my hands I could afford myself the luxury of a bit of a look around. The hill where Dudley Castle was really dominated the area, and effectively it meant everything had to go around it. I could see part of the Castle on the hill, and managed to zoom into into.
It really did look intriguing, but at the moment there was an even more intriguing statue in the Market Square. I do not know if this was the war memorial or not because there was major construction going on in the area and parts of the statue/fountain were obviously being restored. It must have been very impressive though, whatever it was.
From here I could see the “Top Church” and time was still on my side so I headed in that direction.
Called “The Church of St Thomas“, the building is almost 200 years old, and the graveyard dates even further back than that. It is a very impressive building, and the graveyard was even more of a surprise.

Time was marching and I headed off down the road to my interview. It had been a productive day so far, and I was feeling smug that I had been able to see these two beauts.
Once my interview was over I headed across to the Castle, which is on the property of the Zoo (or is it the other way around/). Unfortunately, to see the former you needed to pay for the latter and frankly 15 pounds was not something I would pay to see the castle, especially when the zoo has no interest for me. I decided to head for home instead. I found this image on Wikipedia, and am going to use that in lieu of a personal visit.
The wheel had come a full circle since then and I have travelled on a number of different trains since I arrived here in 2013.
It was a very pretty building with a surprisingly large graveyard, the oldest headstones that were legible dated from the 1780’s.
And that was my day. It had been an excellent one from a gravehunting point of view, and I had managed to get to Birmingham, or at least gone through it. Weather and time permitting I do want to do a day trip to the city if possible, as it too is full of history. And I really like history. As for the interview? never heard from them again.
DRW © 2015-2020. Created 01/04/2015. Images migrated 29/04/2016