Attendance was up again at this mornings Remembrance Event. Our thanks as usual go to Deacon David for a very thought provoking few words and also to Bereavement Services staff, who made sure the area of the Cross of Sacrifice was leaf free. Every year wreaths are laid on behalf of the Royal British Legion, local Councillors, The Masons, The Order of Buffaloes, Selly Oak Royal British Legion and ourselves but this year we were joined by our Local Neighbourhood Policing Officers who try to attend all their local events.
Category: Community
New Birmingham City Council web site for genealogical research
There is a new website now available for people to search for ancestors- for family history/genealogy projects. This website covers all the burial/cremation records for Birmingham City Council.
The Offices will no longer carry out genealogy research and families will be directed to this website.
The Offices will however continue to provide grave location information for people wishing to visit the Cemetery, they will require the full name and year of death to be able to provide this.
The website is www.birminghamburialrecords.co.uk
Moseley and Kings Heath SHED
Our thanks to Moseley and Kings Heath SHED
Their members stepped up to the plate and helped make lots and lots of Hedgehog Houses and ‘do it yourself’ kits for events, as part of our Help for Hedgehogs event.
Today we were able to present Mark, who attended events on behalf of SHED, with a cheque to help them buy replacement timber etc.
Please follow this link to see more information on SHED, who are a registered charity.
Once again, our thank to the National Lottery, Heritage Lottery Fund for funding this project.
Final September Litter Pick Reminder
Final reminder, our September Litter Pick will be taking place on this Saturday morning, the 2nd September. Please meet at the Lodge on the main drive at 10am and we will finish at 11.30am. This will be our final Litter pick before the onset of Winter! Our next visit will be in December.
Please think about joining us for this event as the cemetery is such a beautiful environment and we want to help keep it that way. Combine your litter picking with wandering around its tree lined pathways and listen to the bird song. What a good use of a hopefully sunny morning! 
Litter pickers and bags will be provided but we do advise stout footwear and gloves as well. Children under 16 are welcome but must be accompanied by a responsible adult.
Extension to our Help for Hedgehogs project
FBEC are pleased to announce that Heritage Lottery, the grant providers for the above project, have agreed a 3 month extension to our time schedule and some additional expenditure.
We would like to thank all the people that provided items free of charge and gave their time for free. This has resulted in an under spend! Unusual in this day and age!
After discussion with Heritage Lottery it has been agreed that we can spend the remaining funding on an interpretation board, highlighting Hedgehog facts, to be placed in the cemetery. A time extension has been agreed to allow for design, manufacture and installation.
Our thanks again to all the organisations involved as we were dependent not only on their expertise, but also on their hours of dedication to this project.
Beautiful, and busy, day in Brandwood End.
Today I popped into the cemetery as ‘Idverde’, the contractors that mow , kindly agreed to take some ‘width’ off our Civilian Garden hedges. Nesting now over, so hard cut back undertaken with heavy duty equipment. The hedge was thriving so well and putting on so much growth that it was beginning to impede the grass cutting to the rear of the adjacent graves. All good now. Thank you to the Idverde staff.
The new round feature beds are now well established and it is such a peaceful place to pass a few minutes. Today was busy in Brandwood End as there was a funeral and a large number of cars.
Heritage Hedge maturing well.
Those of you that follow the activities of FBEC will know that a few years ago we enlisted the help of local pupils to create yet another hedged area to surround a small section of War Graves that we felt needed to be defined. The majority of our 300+ War Graves are scattered throughout the cemetery.
The original project took place in early 2014 so barely 3 years later and the hedge is now well established.
Whilst we were in the cemetery with our shears we also removed stragglers from this hedge.
Both these hedges were planted in define areas but also to increase habitat for birds, insects and especially Hedgehogs within Brandwood End.
Three years on…… a well established hedge.
Trim for our hedge!!
Despite agreeing that no serious hedge cutting would take place to our hedge surrounding the Civilian Garden of Remembrance (for ecological reasons), we had to give in- and do a slight top trim today as some of the uppermost shoots were stretching nearly a meter above the hedge itself!!
Before, with the stragglers standing proud!
Back under control below. We have made sure that the main body of the hedge remained undisturbed.
Julia, assisted by our youngest gardener…and an after view, looking much tidier.
Can we also report that our redesigned and replanted beds are now coming into their own and reflect a riot of colour and texture, whilst needing minimal attention. Mission accomplished !
Hedge uncut in this one ….. Beautiful texture filled beds
Rachel, our Community Film Maker…..
Our thanks go to all those that helped with the Hedgehog Project, and there may still be a little more to come…but we must thank Rachel for her brilliant work with us and all the local pupils, resulting in our lovely Hedgehog Film. We really hope we can work with her again on our next project. Watch this space…….and visit Rachel’s site via this link to see what she says about working on our Hedgehog project.
At Last- your chance to view and share our Hedgehog Film.
Today we shared our Hedgehog Project film with our last group of Film Makers so now we are able to share it with you. Please take a look and share with as many people as possible. This film was made by pupils of St Albans RC Primary and Woodthorpe Primary with the help of Community Film Maker Rachel Gillies
Our thanks to Emma from The Wildlife Trust and BCC Rangers Jan and Dean- and of course The Heritage Lottery, who funded this project.
http://www.bbcwildlife.org.uk/hedgehogs
Please share this with as many people as you can to help the plight of the Hedgehog.