Come and help clear graves.
Author: Jane Edwards
Nat West Staff battle the rain.
Last week we had to cancel the visit from Nat West Staff to help clear graves. As you all may remember, we were suffering from heavy rain and storm conditions -so we were concerned when it appeared things were going the same way with their replacement visit today! We needn’t have worried as three of their staff turned up undaunted and made amazing inroads into clearing the front of Section 8.
I think the difference is evident from the photographs above.? Thank you ladies and thanks to the FBEC volunteers that organised the day.
Open event in Civilian Garden
September was an unusually busy month for FBEC with the inclusion of two ‘main’ events for us. We have featured the unveiling of our new Memorial stone but we also had an Open Event for Heritage and were able to tell visitors the stories behind the names on the Memorial.
We were very pleased to welcome the new local Selly Oak MP and Minister for Veterans. Al Carns. He was very interested in the records showing the sites of bomb damage and relating to the deaths of those listed on the new Memorial.
Our thanks to all those interested people who called in to chat.
Pause for Hope.
A Pause for Hope service of prayer and music, for all those affected by cancer, will be held in St. Dunstan’s Church High Street Kings Heath on Sunday 20 October at 3.00pm. Supported by Churches Together in Kings Heath, it is an opportunity to remember loved ones, pray for patients, carers, medical professionals, and those searching for the cure to cancer. Car park access via Institute Road. Contact Deacon David Fairbotham Catholic Parish of St. Dunstan and St. Jude Kings Heath and Maypole for more information. 07948379545 or email dcn.david.fairbotham@rcaob.org.uk
Extract from Pause for Hope website www.pauseforhope.org.uk
Pause for Hope services are:
Open. Everyone is welcome and our services are free. There is no need for a ticket and attendees can be of any faith, or none at all.
Ecumenical. Representatives of all denominations lead the congregation in hymns and prayers.
Informative. A short address is given by an invited speaker.
Musical. A selection of music is played. Hymns are sung.
Reflective. Individual candles are lit by members of the congregation for someone with cancer or in memory of someone lost to cancer.
Hopeful. We pray for the day to quickly come when all cancers can be prevented or cured.
A retiring collection is taken for the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation
WHO LIES BENEATH?
Come along to the Civilian Garden of Remembrance this Saturday, 14th,between 11am and 2pm to hear the stories behind the names on our new Memorial.
Matt Felkin will be there with all his air raid records and maps. Not to be missed if you are interested in the impact WW2 had on civilians.
NIQ Volunteers make inroads into Section 8
This is the first time that NIQ have been on site with the Friends and we hope they will return again as they all worked very hard……..and we are pretty sure they all enjoyed themselves! The area that they were working in had a section almost completely covered with large shrubs but NIQ staff worked hard and changed the end of the section completely.
Ian Binnie’s ‘Walk and Talk’
Seventeen members of the public joined Ian Binnie on a fascinating walk around the cemetery to visit nine military graves, all of whom died in 1944. It was interesting to learn that several of them had been killed in accidents and not on active service.
Welcome back Deutsche Bank.
We welcomed Deutsche Bank staff back to the Cemetery today to continue helping us to clear some of the more overgrown areas . Luckily the weather was relatively settled so we were all able to clear a large section in the time they were on site.
FBEC rely on the help of volunteers and corporate groups to be able to continue uncovering graves buried under shrubs and Ivy and clearing self set trees.
We are pleased to say that we still have several groups booked in for the remainder of this year so should be able to make inroads in other sections of the cemetery.
Our thanks to all our volunteers for giving up their time.
New Memorial unveiled by Dr Carl Chinn.
All our work came good today as Dr Carl Chinn unveiled our Memorial in the Civilian Garden of Remembrance. Now the names of those buried in this area can be read by visitors. We were also pleased to welcome Councillors John Cotton and David Barker as well as Brian Wright and Matt Felkin representing BARRA accompanied by 4 Standard Bearers. Several of our volunteers joined us, as well as representatives of local history groups and FBEC committee members.
The Memorial is now on view in The Civilian Garden of Remembrance and on Saturday the 14th we will be there to give visitors more information about the people whose names are displayed.
Grave Gardeners/Shrubbery clearance events.