Our partnership with Caring for God’s Acre to record all the inscriptions on headstones to populate a digital map of Brandwood End is coming to a close but during Heritage week they kindly led a session for the public in the hope that we may prolong its demise!
A large group of over 20 people enjoyed a well researched and delivered walk today taking in the graves of interesting Balsall Heath residents.
Julia Griffin, our Chairman, and Val Hart from Balsall Heath History Society had originally designed this walk to be delivered to Society members but there was so much interest that it was repeated in full today. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the sunshine and a chance to learn more about some of those buried in Brandwood.
Today we were able to tell the story of the Civilian Garden of Remembrance and those that lie within.
Many of our visitors today had no idea that this peaceful area of reflection existed and certainly knew nothing of those buried within.
With the help of Matt Felkin and his wealth of knowledge, we were able to answer many questions about Civilian casualties and local areas that received bomb damage.
Our thanks again to everyone that helped us deliver this Heritage Event and those who took the time to visit us, especially in this strange time of public mourning.
After discussion with the organisers of the Heritage Open Festival the Friends have decided that we WILL CONTINUE with our 3 low key events this week scheduled for Saturday, Wednesday and Friday. We hope that some of you will join us.
Final touches complete. All ready for Saturday. Fingers crossed for the weather as it will all be outdoors.
Our thanks to Vanessa, one of our volunteers, for spending some time this morning on a final tidy up of the Civilian Garden. Plants dead headed, weeds removed……all we need now are the Council to cut the grass and we are looking our best. Hope to see some of you there Saturday at 11am till 2 pm. Please pop along.
Over Heritage week we have decided to offer our self guided Heritage Walk again. You can find the link to this on our ‘Events’ page. Please download it before you attend if you want to participate. We will have a few hard copies available on Saturday the 10th at our event in the Civilian Garden but using your mobile device saves us printing costs. Thankyou
Just a reminder that the Friends are taking part in Heritage Open week commencing next Saturday the 10th September with an event based in our Civilian Garden- 11am to 2pm
The Friends will be there to put names to those bomb victims buried within this area and give everyone an insight into when and why it was originally designed some 70 years ago. Its been reborn several times so has a history of its own.
We will also be joined by Matt Felkin who has done a lot of research for Birmingham Air Raids Association and he holds a wealth of information about casualties and bomb sites around the City.
There is still time to sign up to assist other volunteers recording inscriptions of our headstones for a digital map ! Follow this link to Eventbrite to book a place. Wednesday 14th September 10am-noon. This event will be led by Caring for God’s Acre.
Our final event will be a stroll around a number of graves that have been researched by Balsall Heath History Society and the Friends. There are still a few spaces- e mail us on friendsofbec@gmail.com
Friday 16th September 2pm.
