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.