Category: Environment

Take Care in the cemetery

The weather may be improving but the pathways are still very slippery and dangerous in the cemetery so do take great care if you have to visit.

We would suggest that you wait till the snow and cold weather has gone but we know that there are many people who visit regularly irrelevant of the weather, so please take care.

There is an additional hazard because of the heavy weight of snow and ice on branches has which has meant that some trees have shed branches and the increased wind hasn’t helped. Also with the thaw large sections of snow are falling from high branches.

 

 

Join our Friendly Gardening Volunteers?

Come and join our Grave Gardeners as they help to clear years of shrubbery shrouding graves. WE ARE A small friendly group who chat whilst WE work ,where you can do as much or as little as you want.
Sunday January 18th ,Saturday February 21st .Saturday March 14th
Meet by the Lodge on the main drive at 11am. Generally we finish by 12.30pm.
We have the tools, gloves etc but you will need stout footwear and suitable clothing. A kneeler may be useful.

Seasons Greetings to all our supporters

The Friends and the cemetery  have had a wonderful year with many more volunteers than in previous years, mainly working on our special 20th Anniversary Grave Revealing and Recording Project. Nearly every month in 2025 our volunteers contributed in excess of 120 hours between them, which is the equivalent to 3 full time additional ground staff. 

The photographs below show just a few of the volunteers (community  and corporate groups) that have pitched in to clear shrubs, take photographs, create data bases, litter pick, marshall events, lead walks, plant trees, liaise with schools, apply for grants, research, honour the fallen and generally keep the community involved and informed.

We can’t forget Bereavements Service staff both on the ground and in Kings Norton office. Without their co operation we would not be able to achieve as much as  we do.

Seasons Greetings to you all and let’s hope that 2026 is as productive as 2025 has been.

AVOVE volunteers battle wind and rain to clear a coppice area.

Despite the warning of bad weather we were joined by volunteers from AVOVE in an attempt to clear a large coppice area that was covering a number of graves.

You can see the coppice that lies behind the volunteers and the outline of a number of graves hidden within the shrubbery.  When the team arrived there was none of the predicted wind but the drizzle soaked through your clothes! That drizzle later became torrential rain, but the team were determined to clear the whole coppice.

 

As you can see by the photograph below, they totally cleared the coppice and uncovered  lots of graves that had been hidden for many years.

 

 

Deutsche Bank staff power through shrubbery to uncover graves.

Twelve Deutsche Bank staff and four FBEC volunteers worked all day to clear several large areas of established self set trees and shrubs on one of the sections in the cemetery. It’s a slow process but we are making headway in the cemetery. It is a little like the Forth Road Bridge as we are sure it grows back almost as fast as we remove it, however much of the shrubbery removed has been in place for many, many years and will only return as ”low level.

The photograph below gives you an idea of the size of coppice/shrubbery we were tackling. If you would like to see more, follow this link.

The larger trees are left as the aim is purely to make access to all graves possible. Often the lower branches may be removed if the tree is well established. Below you can see the area above after clearance.

Many hands make this process easier and so much faster. 2 areas like this and some smaller spots were cleared in todays work.

 

Litter Pick up and coming.

We are holding our quarterly LITTER PICK on this coming Saturday the 6th September. On a fine day there is nothing nicer than strolling around the cemetery and listening to the birds singing and spotting the wild life.  Meet at the Lodge at 10am. We have the litter pickers and the bags….all we need is the man power. Stout footwear and gloves are recommended and under 16’s must be accompanied by an adult.

Deutsche Bank battle the weather!

Today we were pleased to welcome five Deutsche Bank staff to the cemetery to continue the clearance of section B10 that their colleagues, and our Grave Gardeners, had begun this summer.

     

Despite really heavy rain for half an hour they were able to clear an amazing amount of shrubbery and expose another 8+graves that have been hidden for many years. Well done everyone.

This section is one of the older areas and has been neglected for some time but recent work by our Grave Gardeners and Deutsche Bank staff has meant that we have now made serious inroads. Well done to you all as I think you will agree the result is stunning.

If you would like to see more of the action today you can follow this link.

Passing the ‘baton’ from Park to Park.

As many of you know, this is FBEC’s 20th year but we share our anniversary with another organisation.  Birmingham Open Spaces Forum (BOSF) were also formed 20 years ago and have created a strong alliance for Friends groups in parks and open spaces in the City. They provide support in many areas from grant application to first aid training, event organisation and risk assessment.

They came up with a brilliant way to link some of their sites across the City together by passing a crafted ‘baton’ from site to site….on foot!  Luckily they had a volunteer in Professor Christopher Millward who undertook all the running/walking!

Brandwood End Cemetery were at the end of the route, which has taken several weekends before finally making it to Cotteridge Park and the finish line!!

The Friends were joined by Chris, our Patron Dr Carl Chinn, Professor Paul Cadman, their support team and of course, some of our volunteers.

What a wonderful morning we all had and our thanks to our ‘tree water team’!! A chance to recognise the work of volunteers in the City in all our parks and green spaces.

 

#BOSFbatoncelebrations

Busy behind the scenes.

Good morning all. You may think the Friends have been quiet in August as its our ‘event free’ month but behind the scenes our volunteers have been busy.
We are moving ahead at speed with our Grave Recording project and our Grave Gardeners are continually uncovering War Graves. Preparations for our Poppy Placing project have started and Remembrance weekend is on our mind…..wreath layers, celebrant, bugle player. It’s all go behind the scenes. As usual our researchers are finding out more about the lives of those buried in the cemetery and kind supporters are passing information and photographs to us.
Next events are the 3 walks we are holding as part of Heritage Open Week in September. We are pleased to say they are all full and well supported. Maybe we need to do more walks?
Thank you all for your continued support.