Category: Events

Heritage Open Event

Despite a wet and drizzly morning well over 40 people turned out to support our Heritage Event at Brandwood End.  We had a packed morning with 2 grave walks to uncover the history of The Labour Corps , led by our Chairman Julia Griffin.

 

Luckily for us the weather lately has been very dry so the passage between the graves was relatively easy to negotiate.

Those that decided not to brave the weather were able to browse the wealth of information we had prepared about WW1, the Suffragette Movement and the Labour Corps as well as reading about ‘Frederick Clifford Alabaster’ and ‘William Shakespeare’ both of whom are buried in Brandwood End. Today we were honoured to welcome William’s Grandson, who came to deliver a precious copy of a photograph of his Grandfather and Grandmother. A member of the Alabaster family had also visited us at our 2017 Service of Remembrance.

Another incentive to remain behind were the amazing cakes that had been baked by Dawn, who is in charge of the day to day running of Brandwood End for Bereavement Services Department. Dawn and her staff went way beyond their job descriptions to help facilitate this event, not least of all- giving their time on a Saturday to erect gazebo’s and move tables and chairs.

 

 

 

 

 

In between our guided walks, visitors were treated to an insight into the lives of some of our soldiers buried in Brandwood End who died towards the end of the War, or soon after, as a result of wounds or the Spanish Flu. Doug Smith and his team made the selected Soldiers ‘come to life’ for just a short while. An amazingly revealing performance that enthralled everyone, despite the rain.

 

Our thanks to everyone who supported us today, especially Bereavement Services Department-for their muscle and refreshments!

We must also thank Pam Wallace of Kings Heath British Legion, who provided some of the wealth of information and our Chairman Julia for providing most of the rest! We hope everyone enjoyed our displays and found them as interesting as we did when we were preparing them! Next year…….100 years of Brandwood End Cemetery…..maybe !!

You can see a few more photographs in our album via this link

Hedge trimmed in time for next weeks Heritage Event.

Despite being cut back hard a few months ago, the hedge surrounding the small Commonwealth War Grave area had developed a some what wild look.

We have given it a very quick top cut to make it look tidy in readiness for our Heritage Open Event next Saturday the 8th, but it will have to wait till much later in the year for another good cut back . Its great to see this young hedge thriving!

                     

 

Officially ‘Autumn’ Litter Pick !

Five of the Friends today enjoyed the sunshine whilst collecting seven….and a half bags of litter from within the cemetery. Most of it came from 2 spots on the boundary and generally we found that there was very little litter and what there was consisted mainly of flower paper and various items that had been blown off graves. Our thanks again to the same few who turn up time and time again to help keep the cemetery looking tidy.

Can we ask you again, that if you place silk flowers on a grave can you please make sure they are well secured- and can you remove paper from fresh flowers, as when they die the paper just blows about in the wind.

September 1st Litter Pick

As summer potentially draws to a close, why not join the Friends for possibly their last Litter Pick in the sunshine! 

Saturday 1st September 10- 11.30am. Meet at the Lodge.

Litter Pickers and bags provided, but we do advise stout shoes/boots and gloves. Under 16’s must be accompanied by an adult.

Heritage Open Event 8th September

On the morning of Saturday 8th September between 10am and 1pm the Friends will be taking part in Heritage Open Week.

Please come along and join us. We will have plenty of  interesting items and displays and you can join one of our Grave Walks (numbers limited) highlighting the plight of ‘Labour Corps’ members who are buried and remembered in Brandwood End.

If you have any interesting memorabilia concerning the activities of local Suffragettes we would really love to see it !

Civilian Garden spic and span again.

Nesting is now over for this year- so we have been able to restore/cut the hedges in the Civilian Garden of Remembrance back to their neat and tidy state.

Our thanks to the staff from Idverde who have undertaken this task on our behalf. As  the hedge is now mature cutting and shaping it represents a major piece of work. It is now beyond the Friends so we rely on assistance to keep everything ship shape.

The Friends still cut and maintain the hedge in the adjacent small War Graves area.

 

Heritage Open Events 2018

Hi all, as you hopefully all know- the Friends will be working with Bereavement Services to host a morning Heritage Event in the Cemetery on September 8th commencing at 10am. The link below takes you to the official site where you can check out everything in your area and plan your week visiting Open Events. We are listed !!

https://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/visiting

Civilian Garden

Following our adventures with the shears…..we moved on to a bit of weeding and pruning in the Civilian Garden of Remembrance. No shears in use on this hedge as it is now mature and used by nesting birds!  Hopefully they will all have fledged soon, as the hawthorn hedge is desperately in need of smartening up but we must remember that the prime reason for this hedge was to increase biodiversity in the cemetery.

‘Uncut’ areas within the cemetery

There has recently been some social media comment highlighting some areas of the cemetery that appear to be unmown. This has been reported to Bereavements Services but when FBEC committee members went to look they were also concerned….. but, it was a far from a simple issue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You will see from the photo above that the growth is not in fact grass (you can see the narrow path has been mown) but it is actually weed growth  on individual graves.

Our understanding is that these areas are are normally treated with weed inhibitor but this year it has been ineffective- possibly because of the rain deluge that followed spraying and then this long hot spell? Not sure what they can do at this stage, as spraying now may kill whats grown, but not remove it ! When they offer a solution we will let you know.

Meanwhile, rest assured that the rest of the cemetery is spick and span…..as you can see below.