Category: Community

The end of Heritage Open Week

What a wonderful week the Friends of Brandwood End Cemetery have enjoyed as part of Birmingham Heritage Open. From Music, to history, to art and symbolism!

Our thanks to everyone that took part in our four events. It was wonderful to introduce so many people to the cemetery who had never visited before or who often visit one area of our 53 acres and have never explored the rest. We have also had a lot of visitors from outside Birmingham this year.

Special thanks to Shelley from Leaf Creative Arts and Jodie and Rachel from Caring for Gods Acre. Their walks and our History walk proved so popular that we have had to promise to repeat similar events in the Spring.

Finally a special thank you to all our committee of the Friends who have supported these events and especially to Gill for being our photographer at all of the events.

 

Symbolism of Angels.

We had two walks/talks today under the title of ‘Symbolism of Angels’ and both of them were fully booked with 20+ attendees morning and afternoon.

Dr Josie Wall and Dr Rachel Askew kept everyone intrigued with not just symbolism but also a peep into the real stories of those remembered on the headstones. Nothing is what it seems, as we found out!!

Josie and Rachel both work for Caring for Gods Acre and they gave everyone such a wealth of information about some of our wonderful Angels as well as sharing some of their background research.

 

Gate to Gate Walk

Another well attended walk in the cemetery. This was a chance to share some of the history of the Friends and the Cemetery with 26 members of the public in the hope that they will visit again and enjoy the rich history the cemetery hides behind its stones.

Today, in HERITAGE OPEN WEEK, the sun shone and the visitors enjoyed a gentle stroll from the main gate to the walking gate- along the main drive. Another glimpse into some of the stories in Brandwood End.

Great musical start to Heritage Open Week

The weather was dull and miserable but the music was anything but! What a great way to spend an hour in our beautiful cemetery. Thanks to  Suze and Brandwood Buzz, who organised our introduction to Shelly at Leaf Arts as part of their summer programme.

                                 

Shelly’s play list of music was superb and a group of over 20 people, with their own individual head sets, strolled  happily around the tree lined avenues remembering their youth and how important music can be to mental health.

It was a unanimous success and we can’t wait for Shelly to compile her next playlist. Thank you to everyone that attended. Heritage week, heritage music and  a beautiful heritage cemetery. What a great start to HERITAGE OPEN WEEK.

HERITAGE OPEN EVENTS.

Welcome to Heritage Open Week. Some space left tomorrow . Bathe in Nature…the 17th September at 10.30am.

Bathe in Nature.  A chance to enjoy a stroll around the cemetery whilst enjoying affirming and calming music via  headphones.  We still have a few spaces. Meet opposite the Lodge on the main drive at 10.20am ready for a 10.30am start.

The Symbolism of Angels Sunday 1.30pm.  Dr Josie Wall still has a few spaces on this fascinating talk and walk.  The morning session is fully booked.

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.

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.

 

#BOSFbatoncelebrations

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.