
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.

How eagle eyed are you?

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)

Remembrance Service Reminder
The Friends would like to remind everyone that there will be the usual Service of Remembrance on Sunday 11th November in the cemetery. Please arrive before 10.50, when a short Service will be held prior to the 2 minutes silence. This will be followed by the laying of wreaths by a number of organisations at the Cross of Sacrifice and also at the WW1 memorial.

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.
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-
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.