St Osburg's Burial Ground

Good morning colleagues. I am interested in finding out a couple of things. The first one is the location of St Osburg's burial ground in the year of 1826. Could this be the one I have found on the Old Ordnance Map 1887 showing a burial site in Hill Street just below the church and above the "Bond's Hospital"? My second request: Imagine the burial site was lost during the war years for re-development. If so where were the remains put to rest. Tony

Interesting question Tony, I remember well the burial ground in Hill Street having walked through it on many an occasion in the 1960's. I didn't realise it was connected to St Osburg's at the time, but on reflection it seems logical. It was certainly still there at the town side when the Ring Road was constructed and nearby was a large underground air raid shelter which was in pristine condition for us youngsters to use as a 'den'! One thing I remember about the graveyard is that one headstone (quite large as I recall) had the name William Shakespeare carved in it, obviously not the Bard, but to us at the time it could well have been! Maybe worth investigating by our members that have access to 'Ancestry' sites?!

But St Osburg's wasn't built until the 1840s

I don't know if this is of any help but when I moved into Dover Street in 1974 one of the neighbours told me he had been involved in digging up an old graveyard to make way for what he said was the car park behind the Belgrade in the late 60's. I was told the work was mainly done at night and he had to wear protective gear because of any diseases that might be lingering there and the smell. Unfortunately I never thought to ask for any more details. Could this have been the burial site in question?

Does this thread help?

Thanks for the feedback, but it raises a question where were the remains put to rest. According to my researcher friend living in Holland made enquires to the Catholic Archives at St Chads in Birmingham to be told her 4x great grandfather died at St Osburg's in Coventry. I can recall the London Road Cemetery did not open until to around 1847 so were the bodies buried or was there another St Osburg's

If it's a congregational burial ground then it won't be for St Osburg's which is Catholic. Aren't congregational churches independents?

I agree with others, St Osburg's was built in 1843-5. It was built slightly before the London Road cemetery, which might be where most of the later burials took place. The Hill Street plot was for the Congregational churches. There was a small chapel, dedicated to St Lawrence and St Mary, on the site of the present church. So if the burial refers to that, the question has to be, what did the 1845 builders do with those burials? The answer is often just to leave them there, even as building work went over or even through them. So long as they didn't leave consecrated ground, I'm not sure that it was taboo. I think that there was a much older St Osburga church connected to a nunnery but I'm not sure anyone actually knows where it was or the nunnery it was connected to. It had gone long before 1823

Helen, on a site about the history of the Church of the Most Holy Sacrament and St Osburg it says that St Osburg's was a convent established by the Abbess St Osburg in Anglo Saxon times. It was destroyed by the Vikings and rebuilt as a monastery for men in 1043 by Lady Godiva and Earl Leofric. It developed into a great monastery and the cathedral church of Coventry. It was destroyed by Henry VIII. The site to the left of Holy Trinity has been preserved.

Yes, the early Congregationalists were known as Independents, and were non- conformists i.e. they did not conform to the C of E, the Established Church.

Tony1, I think what was meant was that the funeral rites for your ancestor were at St Osburg, Hill St, and yes the Church records are at St Chad, in Birmingham. I used them to trace my gt-grandmother, born in Coventry, who was RC because her father was Irish.

2010

Nice to see then and now MR though substantially the same with only the lychgate and railings gone!

Does anyone know what happened to the original Presbytery? Rob has a great photo of it.