Author: Jane Edwards

A January date for your diary,

Holocaust Memorial Day 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and the 25th anniversary of the Genocide in Bosnia.

                The theme for 2020 is ‘Stand Together’.

 Today there is increasing division in communities across the UK and the world. Now more than ever, we need to stand together with others in our communities in order to stop division and the spread of identity-based hostility in our society.

Holocaust Memorial Day 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz – this is a significant milestone and is made particularly poignant by the dwindling number of survivors who are able to share their testimony.

It also marks the 25th anniversary of the Genocide in Bosnia.

 HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY FALLS INTERNATIONALLY ON JANUARY 27TH

 

Welcome to 2020.

Well, here we are….2020 ! Can we wish all our followers, supporters and members a very Happy New Year.

2019 has seen lots of steps forward for the Friends, especially in relation to the Chapels. It is to be hoped that we can maintain the momentum and bring these beautiful buildings back to the notice of the public.

Councillor Sharon Thompson and members of Bereavement Service staff recently had the chance to inspect the inside of these buildings with the Friends and we all agreed that 2020 should be the year we try to find a use for this beautiful  structure.

The Great and the Good.

It was a pleasure to meet the Revd Tom Merry and his sister in Brandwood End today as they searched for family graves. Both had travelled from Gloucestershire and Worcestershire respectively and had spent an interesting morning investigating burial records to help locate several graves.

They were both surprised to see the prominence of the family grave of their great grandfather William Adams, shared with one set of their grandparents.

William, known as Bill,  was a notable benefactor to the City of Birmingham, a county councillor, magistrate and chairman of Birmingham Football Club.

After his death in 1911 (and burial at Brandwood End) his house in Moseley called ‘Sorrento’ became a hospital for WW1 wounded and then later a well known local maternity hospital.

William was despatched from his home town of Sheffield to Birmingham, to establish a new branch of Refuge Assurance, a company founded by his father Henry Adams.

Whilst in the cemetery they were also able to locate 3 other family graves.  Our thanks for allowing The Friends to be part of this interesting investigation.

Looking Back……2006

I just came across the photograph below, taken at the time of a ‘podcast’, and thought our longer serving members may like to be reminded of the stalwart support that the Friends received from two of our founder members, Anne Courbet and Barrie Simpson.

Sadly, Barrie is no longer with us but even though Anne has moved away, she is still very active in her support of the Friends.

Note the sad condition of the chapel roof above and how it looks now. This does show how far we have come to improve the condition of this building.

 

Tree re-cycled to help local charity.

Lovely to see this ‘wishes’ tree at Kings Norton cemetery in aid of  ‘Matt’s Mission’, a local registered charity founded in 2011 and dedicated to granting wishes to children with life threatening illnesses, recovering from a life threatening illness, have a severe disability, and also offering siblings support and counselling.

The tree is a ‘self setter’ removed from a grave in Brandwood End….so no waste!

If you are visiting Kings Norton, why not call into the office reception and support this worthy cause?

Thank you to all our collaborators.

This Web site and our Facebook page always receive so many interesting and positive stories and comments about Brandwood End Cemetery.

We are so excited to realise that many other people are as fascinated by the varied interesting aspects of the cemetery as we are.

A special thank you to Gary Staples and Andrew Thornton for sharing their photographs and research with the Friends. With contributions from  Balsall Heath Local History Society, Moseley History Society and members of Kings Heath Local History Society we are now amassing a great archive of information featuring those, less well known but none the less important people who are buried or remembered in Brandwood End. Thank you all for sharing.

Tree Information

For those of you who have an interest in trees, these are the latest editions to the cemetery…….

10 standards:

2 x Malus baccata ‘Street Parade’ (crab apple)

2 x Quercus palustris (Pin oak)

2 x Liquidambar styraciflua Worplesdon (Sweet gum)

2 x Liriodendron tulipifera (Tulip tree)

2 x Prunus ‘Accolade’ (Flowering cherry)

Look them all up on the magnificent ‘google’- they are all really beautiful and interesting trees.

What a wet, wet, wet Tree Planting.

Year 6 pupils from St Albans R C Primary took part in a fantastic tree plant in the Cemetery today and despite the rain….a good time was enjoyed by all. Our thanks to Birmingham Trees for Life for organising this planting event, to replace some of the aged ‘Poplars’ felled recently.

Birmingham Trees for Life had lots of assistance today as they were joined by the Lord-Lieutenant of the West Midlands- John Crabtree and his wife, who came well prepared to plant alongside the pupils.

Our local Councillor, Mike Leddy, popped along and  a gaggle of Tree Officers also made an appearance!!

Our thanks to everyone at BTFL for continuing with this tree replacement project and the Tree Officers, local Ranger Dean and BCC Woodland Team for making this all possible. Following the event everyone enjoyed a ‘warm up’ in the Lodge with drinks and biscuits.

As they made their way back to school, Ranger Dean led a short Tree Walk for pupils with lots of interesting information. Despite the miserable weather we all had a lovely morning and the cemetery now has 10 more interesting standard trees along its boundary.

Our thanks to Bereavement Services staff and the ‘Friends’ who also supported this event.