Category: Friends of Brandwood End Cemetery

Have you lost or gained floral tributes?

On behalf of The Friends can we apologise in advance if you visit your family grave and find your flowers have disappeared…. Or alternatively…. you now have flowers you didn’t place BUT it’s been very windy lately.
As we ‘litter picked’ last weekend we found many bunches and individual artificial flowers strewn around the cemetery. As we have no idea where they were originally placed, rather than bin them, we place them on the nearest grave. Please remember to secure anything you leave at your family grave.
Can we remind you to avoid glass vases as the Ravens and Magpies love to try to pick them up….. And drop them. We collected a lot of smashed vases , (for safety reasons.)

Cemetery views by supports of FBEC and Cemetery lovers.

ITS NATIONAL CEMETERIES WEEK.  A TIME TO CELEBRATE OUR CEMETERIES.

Here are a few photographs taken by visitors to the cemetery that show what a peaceful and inviting green space it is. These photographs cover a very small area of Brandwood End. Pop in and take a stroll. There are plenty of benches to sit and listen to the bird song or watch the wildlife. Fifteen minutes in here will nourish your body and soul……..

                                                   

         

                          

Big Brandwood Bash.

Join the Friends of Dawberry Fields Park for a great fun day where all the local community groups will come together. The Friends of Brandwood End Cemetery are members of Brandwood Buzz which encourages people to visit events, sites, shops, businesses, open spaces in the Brandwood area and volunteer in the area as well. Brandwood has so much to offer . FBEC will be at this event to answer your questions and spread the word about our beautiful cemetery which offers so much peace and quiet to help restore mind and body.

 

Nick Booth

Our hearts are heavy this afternoon as, with many other people, we pause to remember Nick Booth, who was a friend to FBEC from our inception. Nick passed away a few weeks ago in a tragic accident at home but will be remembered by many this afternoon at an event at Castle Bromwich Historic Gardens.

Nick worked with FBEC on the design of our web site and has remained, via his company Podnosh,  as the host of the site. He has been our ‘go to person’ for anything computer related and has held our hands through many technical panics over the years !

Not only was he a supporter but he was also a friend to many of us and we have shared many breakfasts and cups of coffee at less formal meetings in local cafes and tea rooms.

We will all miss you Nick. Your helpful advice and your ever ready smile.

Grave Recording Project- can you help?

As part of our 20th Anniversary celebrations we are undertaking a project to photograph all the gravestones in Section 16 as we are concerned at the speed with which they are deteriorating. Each headstone/memorial will be photographed and inscriptions recorded for future generations who may be seeking relatives. If you want to assist please e mail us at  friendsofbec@gmail.com and one of our committee members will be in touch. We hope to extend this to other sections of the cemetery.

 

Annual AGM Final reminder

This is the final reminder that the Friends are holding their annual AGM at 10.30am tomorrow, Thursday 10th April. The venue is the Conference Room at St Dunstans RC Church in Kingsfield Rd Kings Heath.

To find out what we have done in the last year and what we have planned for the next year, our 20th, then come and join us . We will also have refreshments…..and cake afterwards.

‘Fruit and Nut Village’ Tree plant with FBEC

Gardening Volunteers from FBEC had a fantastic morning in the sunshine with Laura and her helpers from Fruit and Nut Village. They kindly donated 5 trees,( 3 Hazels and 2 Walnuts) to kick off our 20th Anniversary Tree Planting project. Our aim is to try and plant an minimum of 15 trees in the cemetery to replace 21 lost in recent storms. The tree stock has been depleted by over 150 in the last few years due to storms, disease and general age and as most of the cemetery was planted up over 125 years ago we can expect to lose many more in the next few years. We have raised over £4000 already but need to get to £6000 to complete the project next Autumn.

If you would like to see some of our planting photographs from today then follow this link.