Month: March 2017

FBEC Annual AGM

The Friends of Brandwood End Cemetery will be holding their annual AGM on Thursday 13th April in the Conference Room at St Dunstans Church, Kings Heath. 10.30 start. Tea and coffee plus cake will be available! Everyone welcome. At the AGM a report on the Friends activities during the past year will be available and the Treasurer will submit a copy of the accounts.

Great turn out for Jasmin Fields Nature Reserve Litter Pick.

Jasmin Fields Nature Reserve lies just across Broad Lane from the Cemetery site and as a Friends Group we always try and work together. Today was no exception as they held a litter pick and 16 people worked all morning to clear everyday litter and also larger items resulting from recent dredging of the Cole brook which runs through the site.

Several  FBEC members are also members of the Friends of Jasmin Fields, which is a much smaller group than we are, so we were very pleased to see such a good turn out and such a lot of rubbish removed.

 

The Great British Spring Clean

Ten volunteers joined together today to carry out the usual quarterly ‘Litter Pick’ in Brandwood End Cemetery. This Spring we are yet again taking part in the Keep Britain Tidy campaign and their theme is ‘The Great British Spring Clean’

Between everyone- 22 bags of litter were collected ! The bag numbers were higher than usual as storm Dorris had managed to whip lots of flower paper across the site! We started at 10am and drew to a close at 11.30am when a Birmingham City Council bin lorry arrived (bang on time) to take all our collected rubbish away!

Our thanks to all our volunteers (even our tiny new member) for coming along to support this event. The sun shone throughout, so it was a lovely morning and enjoyed by everyone.

A sea of Croci (Crocuses?)

We never fail to be amazed at the areas of replanted Croci ……..replanted by squirrels from the main drive following a very hard day of FBEC ‘planting’ ! Stumbled on yet another small patch and another larger impressive outcrop whilst litter picking today.

42 Amazing Redwoods!

Every time I visit Brandwood End Cemetery, no matter the weather, I marvel at our magnificent avenue of Redwoods. Today, for the first time, I actually counted them! There are 23 on one side of the main drive and 19 on the other. I suspect that we have the most beautiful ‘avenue’ of  42 mature Redwoods in the Midlands? I know that the Friends of Kings Norton Park  are slowly developing their own ‘Redwood Avenue’ but suspect none of us will be about to see them reach the size of those in the Cemetery.

Storm Doris created some problems!

Storm Dorris swept through Brandwood End leaving a trail of felled tree branches behind. Luckily there were no injuries to people….but not so to monuments.  The recently celebrated ‘Alabaster’ grave came very close to being felled as a large branch fell from an adjacent conifer. You can see the damage to the grave behind it!

The larger branches that were obstructing paths have now been removed but evidence of large boughs still litter the site. A generally lucky escape as things could have been a lot worse.

 

 

 

 

 

New storage facility for Brandwood Ground staff

At last! Ground staff at Brandwood End have been waiting a very long time to have a new, purpose built, secure storage facility in their yard at the Cemetery. There have been  a few false hopes raised in the past…..but today, whilst on site, I notice that contractors have actually started.  Hurray for them as this is definitely needed!