Category: Friends of Brandwood End Cemetery

Fantastic way to spend an afternoon!

Our thanks to Ranger Dean who took a large group of us for a very civilised stroll around Brandwood End, in the glorious dappled sunlight! Along the route he pointed out interesting views and colourful trees as well as regaling us with some interesting stories about his time as a Gravedigger in the Cemetery!

20161020_144624Unfortunately the bulk of the trees have not yet taken on their amazing Autumn hues so he encouraged everyone to return in a few weeks to see the riot of colour that is Brandwood End in the Autumn. Despite this, everyone thoroughly enjoyed their insight into this green space and its fantastic tree stock.

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On behalf of FBEC can I thank the anonymous lady for her donation and encourage everyone to pop along and experience ‘Autumn sunshine in Brandwood End’.

 

 

Family event in Half Term

Just a reminder that our next family Hedgehog event will be happening in the cemetery next Tuesday 25th October 2-4pm. Meet by the Lodge. hedgehog2URGENT NOTE

Can we also make an appeal for donations of unopened cans of cat and dog food for the local Hedgehog Rescue Centre as they are running short of food!! Please bring them to the event.

Hedgehog Project launched in local schools

Emma, from Birmingham and Black Country Wildlife Trust, has been busy launching our Help for Hedgehogs campaign in our local schools. The pupils have been so enthusiastic and both schools are keen to create Hedgehog habitat and homes on their sites. Well done to everyone concerned!

20161017_114650 Rachel, our Community Film Maker, is also working with smaller groups of pupils at both schools, as they will be making a short film for us to show the work that everyone has undertaken. The pupils have taken to using the filming equipment like ‘ducks to water’!! 20161018_095102

Civilian Garden of Remembrance officially unveiled.

img_8436We all breathed a sigh of relief to see that the weather was dry this morning for the Friends to welcome over 20 people to the ‘official’ unveiling of our Civilian Garden of Remembrance. Our thanks to Councillor Eva Phillips who made a short speech about the uncertainties in the World today and the value of peace internationally. We all hope that we may see a time when there is no need for ‘civilian dead’ to be laid to rest following conflict.

img_8444Eva then cut the ribbon and declared that the garden refurbishment was now officially completed.

Our thanks to our anonymous donor, who meant that we were able to engage horticulturalist Darren Rudge with a team of his ‘Homebase’ students to complete the work. I am sure all our visitors today agree that the garden looks a picture!

img_8448img_1857Afterwards we all made our way to the Lodge and enjoyed a leisurely cup of tea and some excellent home made cake (thank you Coral!)

Well done Darren and his team!

Not that we mean to keep going on, but……….

We are still celebrating being awarded a ‘Silver Gilt’ medal by the RHS for Heart of England in Bloom! We now have the certificate and here is a photo of it in our hands as proof!

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Yet again can we take the opportunity to thank Nicola for her suggestion that we enter, the RHS for including Cemetery entries this year and everyone that works so hard to keep Brandwood End looking at its best both ‘in bloom’ and also on more practical levels.

Congratulations to all our helpers!

The Friends entered the RHS, Heart of England in Bloom this year without great expectations, as it was the first year that a category for ‘Cemeteries’ under  ‘Parks and Open Spaces’ had been included…….and our first foray into this prestigious award.

Today we traveled to the Awards Ceremony in Aldridge and to our great joy we achieved a ‘Silver Gilt’ Certificate !

20160915_153332Excuse the picture quality but I was so excited to post a copy of the certificate and thank everyone concerned. Over the year, our small band of volunteers have worked hard on many aspects within the cemetery to enhance the experience of those that visit- for whatever reason. During the few weeks before the Judges visit everyone pulled out the stops. Our thanks to Quadron for cutting the grass, the ground staff for emptying the bins and the general appearance of the cemetery, community members for helping with weeding , the phantom ‘hedge cutters’, all those who supplied photographs and all those that wished us luck!  It paid off………..

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These posters were on display at the event and caught our eye, especially as each one was 6′ tall!

 

 

We all had such a marvelous welcome with a jazz band and then a choir and everyone was made to feel really special. The awards were followed by a lovely lunch which Julia and I ate sitting in the beautiful churchyard adjacent to event.   Thank you all again.   Jane Edwards (Chairman- FBEC)

Keep 24th September free!

Anyone who supports the Friends will know that due to a kind donation we have been able to refurbish the Civilian Garden of Remembrance to make future maintenance a little easier for our small number of dedicated volunteers.20160622_151937We do hope people will join us for its unveiling on Saturday the 24th September at 10am, followed by tea and cake in the Lodge. (Be aware that the cemetery does not officially open till 10am on a Saturday)

Rain didn’t stop play!

We were all watching the rain filled skies with trepidation this afternoon as we held our launch event for our Heritage Lottery funded ‘Help for Hedgehogs’ project.

Jan, the Ranger and Gareth from Birmingham and Black Country Wildlife Trust set up their displays but we did not hold out too much hope as the rain got heavier and heavier but we were all in for a surprise!

Even before we had set everything up the rain eased and families began to arrive !

20160910_141209Jan chatted to everyone about Hedgehogs before leading them off on a trail to find interesting ‘Hedgehog’ facts and then everyone collected suitable twigs and cones to make their very own Hedgehog.

I think you can tell from the faces below how the ‘make your own Hedgehog’ activity went!!

 

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Our thanks to the 30+ people who disregarded the awful weather and we hope you will all come back (with your friends!) to our next event on October 25th in Half Term.