Category: Community

Gallipoli Campaign Remembered

‘When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say,
For Your Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today.’ Kohima Epitaph
24 APRIL 2022
This morning, in beautiful April sunshine and in partnership with the Gallipoli Association, FBEC supported a small gathering to remember all those lost as a result of the ill-fated WW1 Gallipoli Campaign.


This marks the second occasion when a Brandwood End Cemetery Gallipoli/ANZAC Commemoration has taken place and we were particularly delighted to be joined by Councillor Mike Leddy, representing Birmingham City Council.
Councillor Mike Leddy (Birmingham City Council), FBEC Chairman Julia Griffin and Vice Chairman Coral Howard joined John Bartlett (Royal Regiment of Fusiliers), Richard Millington (Warwickshire Yeomanry Association) and Ian Binnie (Gallipoli Association) to lay wreaths at the family grave of Private Horace Turner of 1st Warwickshire Yeomanry who died aged 22 on 30 August 1915 at Suvla Bay. Following the playing of the Last Post a 2 minute silence was observed.
As today was also Orthodox Easter day for both Ukraine and Russia we additionally remembered all those Ukrainians fighting for their freedom and the many thousands who have become casualties.
We will remember them.

Anzac Day 25th April 2022

The 25th April is Anzac Day. This is not a widely commemorated date in the UK but highly valued in many other countries.  If you would like to know more about what Anzac day means to many people then please follow the link below to a short video.

Our thanks to The Gallipoli Association who have invited the Friends to join them at a short Commemorative event on Sunday the 24th April in Brandwood End.

National Cemeteries Week 2022

NATIONAL CEMETERIES WEEK 2022 will be running from 30th April till 8th May this year. It is a chance for Cemeteries and their Friends Groups to shout about what they are doing in relation to the many aspects they are involved in- from Remembrance to biodiversity. During that week the Friends will be signposting you to items of interest in Brandwood End.  Watch this site and our notice boards within the cemetery for more information.

God’s Acre ‘Memorial Recording Project’

As the Spring takes over from Winter the project to record the memorials and their inscriptions in Brandwood End continues. 

This project, led by Caring for Gods Acre, has two parts to it at the moment. The first is to manually record the information and so far we have welcomed many volunteers to undertake this task. If you would like to get involved then you can sign up via this link.

The second part is to convert  this information into a digital record that can eventually be embedded in a map!  All very exciting. If you know your way around a computer key board, then maybe you could help with this very important task. Interested? Then sign up here.

Memorial Recording restarts in Brandwood End.

Come along and help record the inscriptions on the headstones in Brandwood End. You can also learn what they really mean and how word styles have changed over the years.

Dates are now available for the whole of the summer but you do need to book a place as numbers are restricted. Once you take part in this event, organised by Caring for Gods Acre, you will want to come again.

These sessions are free, just book your place here.

 

 

Early ‘Great Spring Clean’.

Thank you to the 19 volunteers who helped remove 27 bags of ‘rubbish’  from the cemetery. Sadly lots of the rubbish consisted of windblown artificial flowers that had been swept far from their original graves by wind and squirrels. Our message is MAKE SURE ANY FLOWERS OR OFFERINGS ARE WELL SECURED. If you, or someone you know, have a grave in the cemetery we would advise that you check that all is OK. We have no idea which graves wind blown flowers come from so they find a home on the nearest grave or in the bin if they are in a poor state.

March Litter Pick

Our March Litter Pick takes places this Saturday the 5th March. As usual this March we are taking part in the national Great British Spring Clean event that is organised by Keep Britain Tidy.

We will supply the pickers and bags, we just need your muscles ! Can we remind you that stout shoes are the order of the day and that children are welcome, but they must bring an adult with them.

Meet at 10am by the Lodge on the main drive.

Key Hill and Warstone Lane Cemeteries.

Oh how we wish we could secure the millions of funding that Key Hill and Warstone  Lane cemeteries have, as it has enabled them to carry out so much practical work and also improve their digital presence. The ability to hire professionals to achieve results can be seen from their web site below. We would recommend one of their tours….but we would also like to recommend our own events!

Friends of Key Hill Cemetery & Warstone Lane Cemetery in Birmingham Jewellery Quarter, Hockley. Established 2004 – Cemetery Research. Restoration , nonconformist, Hockley, Birmingham. Jewellery Quarter (wordpress.com)