Category: News

New Contact Details for Bereavements Services.

Bereavements Services Offices have moved over to a centralised telephone and email system. 

All calls should now be directed to 0121 216 2000 and emails to bereavement.services@birmingham.gov.uk

FBEC would suggest that,  if you are sending an email enquiry,  you should include BRANDWOOD END in the subject line.

There are several options when you ring, opening times, genealogy/finding a grave will be directed to www.birminghamburialrecords.co.uk (The grave records service is a chargeable service.  This is for burials up to 2015 if after that date it will advise which option to go to. )

Heritage Forum meeting.

The Friends are members of the Heritage Forum and often our meetings are at member organisation sites.

  • Today we met at New Hall Mill in Sutton Coldfield. Their volunteers made us all very welcome and we were treated to a private tour of this amazing site. Watch out for their open days as it is certainly worth visiting. 

15 new native trees for the cemetery.

Today the Friends were joined by local pupils of St Albans Catholic Primary school, Councillors, Tree Officers….and a Ranger, to start what we hope will be an ongoing tree replacement project !

 

Birmingham Trees for Life organised today’s event after the local Tree Officer appealed for help to replace the 64 Poplar Trees recently removed as they had reached the end of their life. 3 Flowering Cherry trees, 3 Oak trees, 3 Tulip trees, 3 Crab Apples and 3 Liquid Amber have been planted as a start towards returning the tree stock to its previous level.

The Friends helped with planting, but more importantly they provided hot drinks, squash and biscuits for everyone. Our thanks to everyone that helped make today’s event a success. If you follow the link on

btfl.org.uk you can see lots of lovely photos that they took today.

 

Poppy Cross for every War Grave

The Friends have now started their annual project to place a Poppy Cross on every War Grave in the cemetery. Some are easily spotted as they have CWWGC headstone, all of which have an identical profile.

This photo shows one of our members highlighting a Labour Corps grave as part of a national project to remember lesser known groups of combatants.

We have 350+ Poppies to place and the bulk of them are not as easily found as they are remembered in family graves.

Today we were assisted by committee members and family supporters but our special thanks to members of BARRA who worked on one of the hardest sections- as the area was very uneven and deep in leaves! http://www.birminghamairraids.co.uk/

Our thanks to those that have come along to help us this year. Their input has made such a difference and we are well on the way to completing this task in time for Remembrance Sunday. So far the weather has been kind ! Please do    consider joining The Friends, local Councillors, Neighbourhood Police Officers, The Royal British Legion and many others organisations at our Service of Remembrance on Sunday November 11th, (10.50am)

Chapels on ‘At Risk’ Register.

The Friends have tried several times to get the Victorian Chapels in Brandwood End included in the Victorian Society ‘At Risk’ register and it appears we have at last been successful. As yet we have received no official notification (not sure that we will !) but an article will appear in tomorrows Birmingham Post saying that we have been added, along with a large factory in the Black Country. You can follow the article below, and whilst there are some funding inaccuracies in the reporting, we are really pleased that The Post has decided to highlight this.

https://www.birminghampost.co.uk/news/regional-affairs/old-factory-cemetery-chapels-victorian-15124598 

At this time we are not sure if this listing will add weight to our constant requests to Birmingham City Council to move forward, alongside the Friends, and apply for grant funding to bring this building back into acceptable condition. This will also involve work to find a sustainable future use-  thus ensuring this beautiful buildings future.

The Victorian Society web site also carries this news-

https://www.victoriansociety.org.uk/

Heritage Open Event 8th September

On the morning of Saturday 8th September between 10am and 1pm the Friends will be taking part in Heritage Open Week.

Please come along and join us. We will have plenty of  interesting items and displays and you can join one of our Grave Walks (numbers limited) highlighting the plight of ‘Labour Corps’ members who are buried and remembered in Brandwood End.

If you have any interesting memorabilia concerning the activities of local Suffragettes we would really love to see it !

Final Reminder of our ‘Great British Clean Up’ Litter Pick.

On Saturday the 3rd March between 10 and 11.30am we will be supporting the latest Keep Britain Tidy SPRING CLEAN- LITTER PICK campaign.

              

Please come along to Brandwood End Cemetery in Woodthorpe Rd, Kings Heath and support this event. We will supply litter pickers and bags. Please wear stout shoes/boots and gloves. Meet at the Lodge on the Main Drive.

Work starting on ‘make safe’ and temp roof.

We are now seeing a small amount of work starting to move fences in and then make masonry safe. Planning permission is still pending for a temporary roof on half of the building to protect the walls from the weather etc. With Bereavement Services we hope to raise funds for some ‘interpretation’ so members of the public can follow what is happening in this area. This is not a renovation project at this time, just an effort to prevent further deterioration, pending ideas for asuccessful bid to give this building a sustainable future.

Follow this link to our photo album and thanks to our photographer!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Ya8ung9oipus8mVA3