The cemetery would perform up to 20 burials a day; however, it was declared "full to capacity" in December 2013, allowing burials only in existing family plots, or of babies or cremated remains.

Started in May 1860 and consecrated by the Bishop of Worcester on 23 May 1863, it was the only cemetery owned by the Corporation of Birmingham until 1911, when an expansion of the city boundary brought in others.

[2] Key Hill and Warstone Lane Cemetery were private concerns.

In 1869, 2 acres (8,100 m2) were bought by the Jewish community for their interments,[2] forming Birmingham Hebrew Congregation Cemetery, at the north of the site, across College Road.

In 1882 an obelisk was constructed to replace the monuments that were previously at The Old Meeting House chapel, which itself was demolished to make way for New Street railway station.