| Description | The minutes are handwritten and signed by the committee chairman. The minutes are in uniformly titled minute volumes. The minutes include reports on education work undertaken in connection with allotments situated in various parts of Birmingham (i.e. methods of cultivation, crop rotation systems), summary statements detailing numbers of interments and receipts for the city cemeteries, details of rental arrears of tenants who held allotment plots, plans and progress reports for relating to the acquisition of land and property for cemeteries and allotments, the keeping of animals on allotment land, reports on-site inspections undertaken at the various cemeteries and allotments that fell under the Estates Department's jurisdiction, and more general information about staffing and wages. There is a considerable amount of information relating to the sub-committees work during the First World War. The minutes of 7 December 1916 contain a report concerning a visit by Councillor J.L. Yates and Councillor Turner to the Lodge Hill Cemetery the previous day, which include detailed insights into the condition of soldiers' graves and a description of the section of the graveyard allocated for military personnel, including details on numbers of Commonwealth troops, German prisoners and Belgians buried there (see minutes 4323 - 4324 in BCC/1/AM/5/1/7), and there is further details in the minutes of April 1917. The minutes of 1 February 1917 discuss the problems facing the various cemeteries in preparing bodies for interment, the result of staff shortages due to the volunteering of departmental staff for active service (see minutes 4351 - 4352 in BCC/1/AM/5/1/7). The minutes of 3 May 1917 include reports on the pressure put upon cemetery land for civilian interments at Lodge Hill Cemetery due to the 20,000 interments that took place there since it opened in 1895 and the burying of war dead. |