Category: Environment

Cross and Screen Walls repaired and cleaned.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission have been busy cleaning and repairing the Cross of Sacrifice and the Screen Walls as part of their maintenance programme. All looking clean, tidy and ready for the 125 year anniversary of the first funeral in Brandwood End Cemetery on the 13th April 1899. (We will be posting more about this anniversary nearer the date.)

 

Another new visitor to the cemetery

Array4hogs, Hedgehog Rescue, have been working with the Friends again and we are pleased to introduce our latest new resident- Stevie. She is now up to weight and ready to be released again into the big wide world. Our thanks to Sharon for all her work with Hedgehogs locally. Please do try and make your gardens Hedgehog friendly and take care when strimming and having bonfires etc. Most of the arrivals lately have been badly hurt by strimmers.

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Toilet issues.

We have received lots of comments that the toilets in the cemetery were all locket over last weekend.  Bereavements have explained that the person locking the cemetery on Friday evening does not usually do Brandwood End. The area that they usually do requires the toilets to be locked to prevent vandalism.( Luckily we do not suffer with that at Brandwood End.) They dutifully locked everything! Whoever then opened up at the weekend had no idea the toilets were locked…..and so they remained over the weekend!  Apologies, but hopefully this was a one off.

  • Incidentally, the wonderful photo was taken by a regular in the cemetery… Gary Staples.

 

New Tree Walk leaflet launched.

The Friends are so pleased to get the support of our local Tree Officer, Steve Flood, for our new TREE WALK LEAFLET…… even if he then got distracted looking at the trees!

We really value his input and the fact that he keeps us in the loop when tree work is due. You will find the leaflet boxes attached to both our notice boards at the two entrances.

As the leaves make an appearance we will be organising a Tree Walk led by one of our tree loving supporters.

Deutsche Bank brave the rain.

The start of today’s gardening session with Deutsche Bank was wet and windy but as they worked the rain stopped. So much was achieved in a morning and many more graves emerged from the shrubbery. Well done the Deutsche Dozen! Follow our link to an album if today’s activities https://photos.app.goo.gl/6fdkDUEpLAhvwP7R9

We hope we can welcome them again to carry on this important clearance work. We’ll done to everyone involved including our volunteers who worked alongside them.

 

 

Volunteers keeping sites going.

Birmingham Open Spaces Forum, who collate the hours and tasks undertaken by Birmingham’s volunteers, have published their annual summary of work undertaken.

When you consider the financial position that Birmingham Council find themselves in, it really shows how much effort and time volunteers are putting in to shore up parks, cemeteries and other sites around the City. Without supervision and support by Park Rangers, Neighbourhood Action
Co-ordinators  and BOSF, much of this work would not have been possible.
Lets hope Birmingham Council understand the importance of maintaining the roles mentioned above because they are going to have to rely on volunteer services more and more.