Schools out, so its about time we made sure our Brandwood End Hedgehogs have plenty of food when they finally emerge. Not too long to wait now!!
Join us on Wednesday 22nd February at 10am for a couple of hours of making log piles and bug houses to ensure plenty of juicy food for our prickly friends!
(Unless you are over 16 I am afraid you will have to bring an adult!)
Meet at the Lodge on the main drive of Brandwood End Cemetery 10am.
Those of you that walk through or visit Brandwood End Cemetery will see some tree work happening in the next week or so. There will be some ‘crown lifting’ (taking off of lower branches) at various locations on the site and also the removal of some self set trees near the Diamond Woodland/yard fence.
Great to see so much tree husbandry happening in Brandwood End. More tree work to follow later in the year so watch this blog for details. All this work is being undertaken following consultation between Bereavement Services and the BCC Tree Officer for the area.
Lets hope we don’t see too much snow, but as this shot taken in the cemetery a couple of years ago shows……it can be extremely beautiful!!
It is good to see that trees are being kept in good order by a reputable Tree Surgeon! Can I remind you that you may be seeing quite a lot of tree work in Brandwood End over the Winter. This is good for the public, for obvious safety reasons, but also good for the trees as they need a ‘haircut’ now and then, just like we do .
If you look carefully you can just see them at work, on the right in the tree in orange high viz!
Just a reminder that if you ever need work done on your own trees try and use a reputable company as an enthusiastic amateur can cause damage to the tree (and your view) that may take years to correct.
FBEC member, Pat Franklin, gave up her time to lead a group of U3A (Local History Group) members on a walk through Brandwood End Cemetery. During Heritage Open Week, in September 2014, the Friends devised a Grave Walk highlighting a small number of War Graves in the cemetery and providing a short background to each of them.
Our thanks to Alison Gove-Humphries for taking some lovely photographs at the event.
The tour itself consisted of an introduction and overview, the formation and role of the Friends and then to the CWGC, their policy and philosophy. Next came a brief summary of the First World War, the burials elsewhere [unless stated] and the commemoration on family headstones on the walk. Then on to the Cross of Sacrifice and the recent Commemoration. Thence, the Screen Walls and a walk to the more recent Tree Island Memorial, with tablet and benches. The group were particularly taken with the Poppy Cross Field and its significance.
Our thanks again to Pat for leading this walk. We do occasionally get requests from individuals to attend a walk but unless Pat can get a group of 8 to 12 together it isn’t really worth while. With this in mind, if you would like to take our Grave Walk (Probably not until Spring 2017) can you e mail us on friendsofbec@gmail.com and we will add you to this list then contact you with proposed dates when we have enough prospective participants.
You may think we have ‘issues’ with the City Council, Bereavements Department in Birmingham but they pale into insignificance with those of the Friends of Camberwell Cemeteries in London.
Follow the links to find out what is happening there and the reuse of grave areas.
We must stress that, as far as we are aware, Birmingham has no plans to adopt this method of creating burial areas, and locally we are lucky that we have a fairly recently established Cemetery at Kings Norton, with a large amount of ground available there.
www.savesouthwarkwoods.org.uk/soldiers-graves-mounded-over
www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=1cLb1krd3Cc
Our thoughts are with The Friends of Camberwell Cemeteries and their allied struggle for Southwark Woods.
Every year, in the run up to Armistice Day, the Friends place over 300 poppy crosses on graves of those lost to conflicts. Many are members of the armed forces but many are also civilians killed in air raids locally, as shown in the grave below where 3 members of a family all lost their lives.
We also create a ‘Poppy Cross Cemetery’ grid, near the Cross of Sacrifice on the main drive, to show the vastness of the numbers involved just within Brandwood End Cemetery.
Please walk through the cemetery if you are passing and give a moment of your time to remember those who lost their lives either at home or abroad.
SERVICE OF REMEMBRANCE- SUNDAY 13th NOVEMBER 10.45am .
ALL WELCOME
Pupils at Woodthorpe Primary School learn how to welcome Hedgehogs to their Forest School area and pitched in, creating Hedgehog houses and log piles.
After instructions from Emma from the Wildlife Trust and Ranger Jan, pupils collected leaves to line the house and cut branches to cover it, (after carefully surveying their site to find the best location).The next job was to build a ‘bug hotel’ so visiting Hedgehogs would have plenty of food available before bedding down for the winter.I am sure you agree, that if I was a local Hedgehog I would be hot footing it to their welcoming Forest School Hedgehog home!!
As part of our Help for Hedgehogs campaign we have engaged a Community Film Maker to work in local schools, enabling pupils to make their own film record of the project. This initial meeting helped introduce pupils to the equipment they will be using. Quite a lot of theory before they get their hands on the equipment!
Some time ago we had a number of postcard views provided to us by Mary Harding. Can we highlight them again via this link.
It is interesting to see the magnificent flower beds along the main drive in the photograph, but it should be noted that there were 30+ gardeners at the time!