One day is beautiful and the next is really dismal ! This is a British Winter and we all long for signs of Spring. This week in the cemetery we have had a couple of hints that Spring is on the way.
The Woodpeckers in the cemetery have started hammering out ownership of certain areas ready for the mating season. In Brandwood End we are blessed with both Spotted and Green (ground loving) Woodpeckers.
If you keep your eyes peeled you will also spot some of the hardy Snowdrops the Friends planted !
Our sincere thanks for all the help we have received from members and supporters over the last year. We would not have been able to undertake many of the projects without your support, financially and physically.
This year has been wonderful with projects being supported by so many different sections of the community from Corporate groups to individuals. We have welcomed Josie Wall on board as a member of BCC, tasked with supporting Cemetery Friends Groups and much more ! Members of the public and staff from AVOVE have worked hard to remove large areas of Holly on graves and shrubbery in one section of the Cemetery, we have led walks , Josie has offered on line talks via Caring for Gods Acre and we have taken part in Heritage Open events.
Supporters have gardened, litter picked, provided planters and seeds, crocheted fantastic themed displays by the Lodge, spent hours recording memorial inscriptions, arranged to refurbish benches, searched for graves, supported our Remembrance Service, provided historical information and generally worked along side us to make 2022 a fantastically busy year. No let up yet as lots planned for 2023! Thank you all again but a special thank you to my Poppy Project team and the other organisations that have shared their research with us. Apologies if I have missed you out but I thought this list was worth recording.
Caring for God’s Acre, Balsall Heath History Society, Kings Heath History Group, Mat Felkin (BARRA), AVOVE, Severn Trent, Our Scene CIC (Brightening Brandwood), Ian Binni (Gallipoli Assn), Lukas (Natural History Museum) Josie Wall and Birmingham Bereavement Services Department…..and especially Tony and the Ground Staff Team and our Patrons.
Looking forward to 2023 and the exciting things we will be planning.
LAST LITTER PICK OF 2022
SUNDAY 4TH DECEMBER
10AM TILL 11.30PM
We have the litter pickers, we have the bags, all we need is the manpower. This is our last chance to get all the windblown litter that the spring shrub growth will cover.
Meet at the Lodge.(Under 16 must be accompanied by an adult)
Stout shoes and gloves recommended.
We thought this webinaire may interest some of our followers. Please book via the link below.
Gill Binnie, 21 November 2022 1-2 pm at BMI
Saturday the 5th was our last chance to get rid of as much Holly as possibly on the graves adjacent to the main drive. Once again, ably led by Josie, the volunteers did a magnificent job. Thank you all for giving your time. The improvement is obvious.
No more similar events till spring 2023 but it will be early in the year before nesting starts.
You may remember that the Friends were lucky enough to receive 3 community made planters complete with Wildflowers that we positioned near the Lodge and notice boards. We did get some wildflowers but were disappointed with the display.
A small team of volunteers have taken over the maintenance of these planters and today they were all emptied of the unsuitable soil and refilled with a better quality compost. (Not an easy job)
They are now ready for their Winter planting, so keep an eye out to see what appears. Our thanks again to Brightening Brandwood for providing the planters.
Yet another day with a fantastic team. AVOVE staff went above and beyond to clear a huge area of the cemetery that had been under shrubbery for many years.
Bit by bit graves were uncovered. Some of them had been buried under dense shrubbery for a long time but when dug out, they were remarkably intact and had been protected by years of pine needles.
A few weeks ago Josie Wall, and the Friends, put a shout out for help to remove acres of Holly that were taking over many areas of the cemetery- especially the main drive. Little did we know that 20+ people would turn up and spent hours clearing such a mountain of Holly and some Ivy !. Josie is showing the scale of one of the two piles volunteers removed.
The effect was obvious after 30 minutes, but 3 hours later it was amazing. The photograph above is a before. The one below is the same space afterwards.
Thank you all, The community stands up and shows its commitment yet again. We hope to do this again in November, which will probably be our last chance this side of Christmas. Watch this space.
If you can spare even an hour on the 15th please come along and help- anytime between 11am and 2pm. Stout footwear and gardening gloves if you have them, but we do have tools and some heavy-duty gloves. Many of the graves have no living relatives to visit and help clear self-set shrubs and trees, so we are hoping to be able to make a difference. This is always a rewarding experience as you can see the impact you make as graves ‘appear’ from the shrubbery. Brandwood End is a 53 acre site and has been used for burials since 1899. The days of 20+ on site Gardeners (as there used to be) have gone so we need to encourage community help with this never ending battle.
