32 volunteers completed 171 hours in the cemetery in August. Several volunteers visited more than once and worked on various projects. Our heartfelt thanks for all their support.
Author: Jane Edwards
The ‘Howells’ work on…….
Ray and Sue Howell are Friends of the cemetery and work mainly in the Civilian Garden. This week Ray took to tidying the top of the hedge, which had already grown since the BCC Maintenance Team reduced its height! Sue was equally busy trying to tidy up access to the toilet block!
Chapel view improved.
What a difference a ‘cut hedge’ can make. Next time you are in the cemetery have a look at the area inside the Chapel Fence. The hedge had become well out of control but the Grounds Maintenance team, who cut the grass, pitched in and now it is neat and tidy. Thank you .
A bit of a mess ! Now much tidier!
Heritage Open
It’s Heritage Open again. Due to odd cancellations we have a few spaces on ‘Bathe in Nature’ walk 10.30am on the 17th and a few on Josie’s additional 1.30pm walk and talk on ‘The Symbolism of Angels’. Please e mail us on
friendsofbec@gmail.com
If you would like to join either. Please make it clear which walk interests you.
Small but perfect!
Our Litter Picking group was small today but between them they collected 12+ bags of litter. Well done to the team.
Litter Pick up and coming.
We are holding our quarterly LITTER PICK on this coming Saturday the 6th September. On a fine day there is nothing nicer than strolling around the cemetery and listening to the birds singing and spotting the wild life. Meet at the Lodge at 10am. We have the litter pickers and the bags….all we need is the man power. Stout footwear and gloves are recommended and under 16’s must be accompanied by an adult.
Deutsche Bank battle the weather!
Today we were pleased to welcome five Deutsche Bank staff to the cemetery to continue the clearance of section B10 that their colleagues, and our Grave Gardeners, had begun this summer.
Despite really heavy rain for half an hour they were able to clear an amazing amount of shrubbery and expose another 8+graves that have been hidden for many years. Well done everyone.
This section is one of the older areas and has been neglected for some time but recent work by our Grave Gardeners and Deutsche Bank staff has meant that we have now made serious inroads. Well done to you all as I think you will agree the result is stunning.
If you would like to see more of the action today you can follow this link.
Special thank you.
Our special thank you goes to one of our Patrons, Dr Carl Chinn, who has stepped up to the plate and supported our events in the last few years. His enthusiasm is always infectious and we all enjoy his visits.
Passing the ‘baton’ from Park to Park.
As many of you know, this is FBEC’s 20th year but we share our anniversary with another organisation. Birmingham Open Spaces Forum (BOSF) were also formed 20 years ago and have created a strong alliance for Friends groups in parks and open spaces in the City. They provide support in many areas from grant application to first aid training, event organisation and risk assessment.
They came up with a brilliant way to link some of their sites across the City together by passing a crafted ‘baton’ from site to site….on foot! Luckily they had a volunteer in Professor Christopher Millward who undertook all the running/walking!
Brandwood End Cemetery were at the end of the route, which has taken several weekends before finally making it to Cotteridge Park and the finish line!!
The Friends were joined by Chris, our Patron Dr Carl Chinn, Professor Paul Cadman, their support team and of course, some of our volunteers.
What a wonderful morning we all had and our thanks to our ‘tree water team’!! A chance to recognise the work of volunteers in the City in all our parks and green spaces.
Busy behind the scenes.
Good morning all. You may think the Friends have been quiet in August as its our ‘event free’ month but behind the scenes our volunteers have been busy.
We are moving ahead at speed with our Grave Recording project and our Grave Gardeners are continually uncovering War Graves. Preparations for our Poppy Placing project have started and Remembrance weekend is on our mind…..wreath layers, celebrant, bugle player. It’s all go behind the scenes. As usual our researchers are finding out more about the lives of those buried in the cemetery and kind supporters are passing information and photographs to us.
Next events are the 3 walks we are holding as part of Heritage Open Week in September. We are pleased to say they are all full and well supported. Maybe we need to do more walks?
Thank you all for your continued support.
