Category: Community

The Holly and the Ivy !

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.

Grave Gardeners Volunteer Day.

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.

Heritage walk in Brandwood End.

A large group of over 20 people enjoyed a well researched and delivered walk today taking in the graves of interesting Balsall Heath residents.


Julia Griffin, our Chairman, and Val Hart from Balsall Heath History Society had originally designed this walk to be delivered to Society members but there was so much interest that it was repeated in full today. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the sunshine and a chance to learn more about some of those buried in Brandwood.

Civilian Garden in the spotlight.

Today we were able to tell the story of the Civilian Garden of Remembrance and those that lie within.

Many of our visitors today had no  idea that  this peaceful area of reflection existed and certainly knew nothing of those buried within.

 

With the help of Matt Felkin and his wealth of knowledge,  we were able to answer many questions about Civilian casualties and local areas that received bomb damage.

Our thanks again to everyone that helped us deliver this Heritage Event and those who took the time to visit us, especially in this strange time of public mourning.

Heritage Open Week

Just a reminder that the Friends are taking part in Heritage Open week commencing next Saturday the 10th September with an event based in our Civilian Garden- 11am to 2pm

The Friends will be there to put names to those bomb victims buried within this area and give everyone an insight into when and why it was originally designed some 70 years ago. Its been reborn several times so has a history of its own.

We will also be joined by Matt Felkin who has done a lot of research for Birmingham Air Raids Association and he holds a wealth of information about casualties and bomb sites around the City.

There is still time to sign up to assist other volunteers recording inscriptions of our headstones for a digital map !  Follow this link to Eventbrite to book a place.  Wednesday 14th September 10am-noon. This event will be led by Caring for God’s Acre.

Our final event will be a stroll around a number of graves that have been researched by Balsall Heath History Society and the Friends. There are still a few spaces- e mail us on friendsofbec@gmail.com

Friday 16th September 2pm.