The Friends will be taking part in Heritage Open in September this year so keep the week 11-17th free.
We will be hosting Caring for God’s Acre and their Stories from the Stones on the 13th and then a Lichen specialist will be leading a walk on the 15th. Watch this site for additional events and booking instructions nearer the time.
Earlier this month the Friends of Brandwood End enjoyed working with Our Scene CIC on their latest project Bench to Bench, to promote ‘walking, laughing and sitting chatting in lovely our door settings in Brandwood. This project, which includes our neighbouring Friends at Dawberry Fields Park, is also aimed at recommending accessible walks for people with mobility issues.
The poster below invites the very people this is aimed at to come along and share their thoughts on what is needed to entice them to visit, sit and chat in these areas more often. The first meeting has taken place but Suze Carter is still keen to involve anyone with mobility issues to become involved in the designs. The next get together will be in the Lodge at a date to be arranged so watch this site and our Facebook page for more information.
Every year the Friends take part in the Keep Britain Tidy campaign. Our usual quarterly event always falls a little before the official one but we are happy to be counted as supporters.
This year we will be in the cemetery on Saturday 4th March at 10am, and welcome as many supporters as possible. This is usually our last chance to remove litter that will end up under the bushes when they bloom. We provide bags and pickers but ask you to wear stout footwear and gloves. Under 16’s must be accompanied by an adult.
Last weekend was our last major clear up in the cemetery, led by Josie Wall and supported by the Friends. Our thanks to the volunteers that helped clear a massive pile of Holly from the graves adjacent to the Redwood Avenue. It just shows what an impact just a few volunteers can make. The pile almost hid Julia!
We will still be scheduling gardening sessions as there is so much to do, but this will be the last large scale clearance as the nesting season is now upon us and we dont want to disturb our feathered friends, so watch this page for details.
The Moseley Society History Group present an illustrated talk:
Bomb Alley: the World War Two Blitz and Home Front in
Moseley, Balsall Heath and Kings Heath,
by local historians Ian Binnie, Peter Streets and David Vaux.
Tuesday 21st March 7.30pm
There will be two talks each lasting about an hour:
2.00pm at the Moseley Exchange (149-153 Alcester Road, Moseley, Birmingham, B13 8JP).
This will be a live, illustrated talk. There will also be a display, produced by Matt Felkin, which
includes many unique photographs and documents about the Blitz in Birmingham and the local area.
There is no need to register in advance.
The talk will be repeated on Zoom.
The talk will include recent research done by the four historians but will also be based on the
mass of work done by many groups and individuals. If you have done research on this topic or have
personal knowledge join in the talks, either live or virtually and make a contribution.
To register for the Zoom talk email rkt16@btinternet.com . You will then receive the Zoom link a few
days before.
Winter is a quiet time in Brandwood End but the Friends have been working away in the background on a number of projects.
We are creating a number of ‘Trail sheets’ that will cover Heritage items, trees, interesting graves, fascinating memorials, quiet corners to rest and take in the wildlife and trees plus measured routes to stroll, with distances and surface types to encourage the less able to enjoy them as well.
The sheet below, kindly produced by committee member Lisa Fair, highlights some of the cemetery heritage- both historical and ecological.
This week we had to make an appeal on Social Media site ‘facebook’ for volunteers to remove some of the many geraniums that the Friends planted in the Civilian Garden of Remembrance. No sooner said than done as two of our supporters stepped up to the plate and the job was done.(In freezing conditions)
We had hoped to try and keep the Geraniums over winter as the garden area is pretty sheltered- but we hadn’t banked on the -10 temperatures just before Christmas. All that was left of the glorious Geraniums was brown mush and not an attractive sight!
Thank you Vanessa and Tricia.
Come along to our last Winter shrubbery removal session and help clear Holly and Ivy from the cemetery, so we can uncover graves that have been shrouded with greenery. This will be the last opportunity before nesting starts and all clearing stops. This is a joint event with The Friends and Bereavement Services.
Once again we are indebted to the BCC Grounds Maintenance team who have undertaken a major reduction in the height and bulk of our hedge surrounding the Civilian Garden of Remembrance. Not only do we not have the equipment or man power to carry out this task, we don’t have the ability to remove the resulting shrubbery. It was important that this cut back was completed well before birds started nesting, so thank you again Paul’s team !
