Next walk: Jewellery Quarter, 8 Nov 2026

Key Hill Cemetery by Oosoom CC BY-SA 3.0

For November, we are going to explore Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter and Key Hill Cemetery.

The centre of Birmingham’s industrial life in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, there’s lots to see in the Jewellery Quarter as we walk around. For those of us with an interest in women’s history, there are lots of connections – the women pen-makers who produced approximately three quarters of the world’s pens in the mid to late 19th century; Anne Colmore, head of the Colmore family who laid out the estate in the 17th century; the grave of Constance Naden, a significant 19th century poet who shared a house with a female friend and devoted herself to women’s causes.

Key Hill Cemetery, built in 1833, is a garden cemetery with winding pathways and grand buildings. It’s a lovely place to explore and walk in and there are some very interesting people buried there.

The walk will be on pavements. Weather conditions permitting, we may walk down a short stretch of canal towpath, but there are alternatives if that looks too slippery.

You can bring sandwiches but the jewellery quarter has lots of pubs and cafes so we may want to eat indoors in the warm.

Dogs are not permitted in the cemetery.

We ask women coming on the walk to contribute £1 to Boot Women expenses. We are still also collecting for Women’s Aid, and optional donations of 1£ (or more) will be welcome.

Contact us for details on how to go to the start of the walk.

Join us!