Category: Environment

Access to graves improved in Section 7

Bereavements and the Friends have received requests from visiting families for low hanging branches to be lifted, in Section 7, as they are making access to graves difficult.

Both Bereavements staff and ourselves had a look and agreed that something needed to be done. The Cemetery Superintendent, knowing we had a Grave Gardeners session, asked if we would be happy to tackle the problem so 4 of our team set to and removed the lower 8 feet of hanging branches.  All looking good for now. Maybe further action needed in 2025?

 

Who Lies Beneath?

‘WHO LIES BENEATH? If you recognise any of the unusual surnames below then just maybe one of your family relatives was a victim of the bombing in WW2 and buried within our Civilian Garden of Remembrance. Come along to the Garden between 11am and 2pm on Saturday 14th September to find out more.
Battista, Bramham, Courtnell, Everitt, Granner, Hollyoake, Lovedee, Shamsudi and many more. There are over 50 whose names we know but sadly- quite a few we don’t.
If you know you have family buried in this beautiful Civilian Garden we would love to know more about them if you feel you can share.

Lots of events ahead in Brandwood End Cemetery.

UP AND COMING DATES IN THE FBEC DIARY WHERE WE WELCOME YOUR SUPPORT

  • SATURDAY 7TH SEPTEMBER. Litter Pick 10am-11.30am Meet opposite the Lodge on the main Drive.
  • WEDNESDAY 11TH SEPTEMBER As part of Heritage Open Week, Ian Binnie will lead a free walk around 8 graves of those killed in 1944 and from the Kings Heath area. Meet by the Lodge at 2pm
  • SATURDAY 14TH SEPTEMBER ‘Who lies beneath? The Friends Open Day. As part of Heritage Open Week we will be giving visitors an insight into who is buried in the Civilian Garden and how they came to be there. See Notice boards and Social Media.11am-2pm in the Civilian Garden of Remembrance
  • SATURDAY 12TH OCTOBER, Grave Gardeners Session 11am-2pm, Meet by the Lodge. It is also the start of the Poppy Placing Project prior to Remembrance. If you want to be involved in the Poppy Placing then please e mail us at friendsofbec@gmail.com
  • SATURDAY 9TH NOVEMBER Grave Gardeners Session 11am-2pm meet by the Cross of Sacrifice
  • SUNDAY 10TH NOVEMBER 45AM Annual Service of Remembrance at the Cross of Sacrifice.
  • SUNDAY 1ST DECEMBER Litter Pick 10am-11.30am meet opposite the Lodge on the main drive.
  • SATURDAY 14TH DECEMBER Grave Gardeners Session 11am-2pm Meet by the Lodge

The Friends will have been working in the cemetery for 20 years on the 21stJuly 2025. We will be organising all the above events but also undertaking many other cemetery projects alongside. If you would like to get involved in helping with our research or keeping the cemetery to look cared for then contact us at friendsofbec@gmail.com      or come along to one of our sessions.

Volunteers support gardening project.

Eleven volunteers turned out on August 10th to help FBEC committee members continue their Grave Gardeners project. Lots done again but always plenty to do. Several graves can now be seen where previously all you could see was shrubbery. The pile to the left was removed to uncover these graves. You can see that there are more to reveal further along.

Our thanks again to Ray and Sue Howell for continuing their work in the Civilian Garden. They give a lot of their time to keep it looking as beautiful as it does.

 

Some areas resurfaced at last

Brandwood End Cemetery has been buzzing with activity this week as some long awaited potholes have been filled. We are pleased to say that the areas around the Cross of Sacrifice and also the WW1 Memorial have had large sections re tarmaced. Looks like they had some left as some of the areas heading towards the Broad Lane gate have also been patched. It’s certainly only a small amount of what is needed but it is a start and in these cash strapped times we welcome anything! I should add that the areas repaired could have caused significant damage to pedestrians…. And vehicles so I am sure that’s why they have managed to fund the work.

Tree work continues.

Tree husbandry in Brandwood End has actually been funded this year(it isn’t every year and this will be the last we see of it for a while, I suspect!) the downside is that we will see a number of diseased trees disappearing from our beautiful landscape. They have been earmarked for some time but work has now ramped up with contractors working in the cemetery most days. Most recent losses are a very large tree near Broad Lane entrance which was diseased and a beautiful Labernum on A3FC which was pretty much hollow above waist height. Sad but necessary.