Category: Friends of Brandwood End Cemetery

Friends of Lye and Wollescote Cemetery pay us a visit!

It was lovely to meet some of the newly formed ‘Friends of Lye and Wollescote Cemetery’ as they paid a visit to Brandwood End. They were amazed at the size and the beauty of the tree lined avenues and monuments. FBEC have been in contact with West Midlands Historic Buildings Trust as they were seeking our advice on how we had formed our ‘Friends’ group.

Dudley Council transferred Lye and Wollescote Chapels to West Midlands Historic Buildings Trust, who made an Heritage Lottery application for the site to be renovated and it is now to be used as the Registry Office for the area with a resident Registrar. The Friends themselves were not involved in the funding bid or the restoration as work was more or less completed prior to their formation. We wish them luck with their group.

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If you would like to see what has been achieved at their site you can follow this link .

 

 

 

‘Clean for the Queen’ litter pick in March 2016

Glorious sunshine helped our ‘Clean for the Queen’ litter pick in Brandwood End today. A dozen volunteer and the local Ranger dodged the heavy traffic in the Cemetery today to collect 32 bags of litter!  Most of the collected rubbish consisted of flower papers and we would like to appeal to visitors again to remove the papers from flowers left at grave sides.IMG_8412 The recent winds have created pockets of rubbish along the Sunderton Road boundary fence and Broad Lane, which will soon be enveloped in brambles so todays efforts were well worth while.

Our thanks to our volunteers and the Ranger for giving up their time on Mothering Sunday and we hope to see you all again at our usual quarterly litter pick in June.

IMG_8410We were also able to use this event to promote membership of the Friends and an awareness of what we do in Brandwood End.

All the volunteers were amazed at the volume of traffic that we observed passing through the cemetery today. With vehicle numbers in the hundreds every hour, speeding was not an issue and there were queues on all the main drive areas!

IMG_8420This should give you an idea of the volume of rubbish we managed to collect, and these two bins were just in one area!  32 black bags in all…IMG_8423

 

All in all….a good mornings work.

Cars and Crocus flowers for Mothering Sunday !

The main drive of the cemetery was a riot of colour today as Crocus flowers and Snowdrops vied for position in the sunshine.

The Cemetery was looking good for Mothering Sunday and the constant stream of vehicles carrying relatives visiting their mother’s and grandmother’s graves were a testament to the amount of visitors that Brandwood End still receives.

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Extra Special Litter Pick on Mothering Sunday

clean_for_the_queen_logo_V4This Sunday, 6th March, the Friends of Brandwood End will be carrying out their usual quarterly litter pick, but you may have noticed that it falls during a special event weekend. This weekend is ‘Clean for the Queen‘ weekend when local residents are encouraged to work together to rid their area of litter.

The Friends will be meeting at the Lodge on the main drive at 10am so please come along and help. Normally we will finish at about 11.30am. This is a chance for us to promote FBEC on one of the busiest days in the cemetery and for you to enjoy a stroll around this beautiful green space while collecting any litter you may find.We have had some windy days so we are sure there will be lots of blown flower paper around!

We do have a number of ‘litter pickers’ but please bring your own if you have them. Stout shoes and gloves are also advisable.

JOIN US FOR COFFEE AND CAKE AT OUR AGM

All members are invited to the Annual General Meeting of the Friends of Brandwood End Cemetery which is to be held on Thursday 14th April at 10.30am till 11.30am in the Conference Room at St Dunstans Church, Kingsfield Rd, Birmingham B14 7JN. As you enter from the main gate in Kingsfield Road the Conference Room is on the right. Copies of the Annual Report and the Audited Accounts will be presented and circulated to the members present. Following the meeting these will be posted on our website fbec.org.uk.

Under the rules, existing members of the Executive Committee will be offering themselves for re-election but we welcome enquiries from prospective new members. All nominees must be members of FBEC and nomination forms can be obtained from the Chairman and must be completed and submitted by 31st March 2016.

Any questions to be tabled at the AGM should be submitted in advance to the Chairman by telephone /email by 31st March 2016.-07811 393259 / friendsofbec@gmail.com

The Committee sincerely hopes that you will be able to join us for tea and cake and to learn of our successes to date and plans for the future. We work on your behalf and depend on your support.

Could this mean Spring is on the way!

Beautiful day today in the Cemetery. Sunshine, snowdrops(mainly leaves!) and the Woodpecker hammering away. Everywhere you look the daffodils are blooming and blossom trees are in bud.  Muntjac are calling…….maybe all a bit early in the year?

Litter pick March 2014 (16) (800x600)spotted woodpecker20160219_095224Every few days one of our committee strolls (or drives) around the cemetery to see what has been happening. The Tree Officer tells us that, despite loosing one large aged conifer at the far end of the cemetery, we escaped severe damage in Brandwood End.  A number of fallen branches were also reported to him by Bereavement Services and they have also been dealt with.

Extra Special Litter Pick coming up!

Our next litter pick will be taking place on Sunday 6th March from 10am-12noon- meet at the Lodge on the Main Drive.

This year we will be supporting a special drive to Keep Britain Tidy by registering this event with the ‘Clean for the Queen’ web site to encourage everyone to take care of their local environment. You can see our entry via this link.

Can we remind you that we provide litter pickers and bags but recommend you wear stout foot wear and gloves.

clean_for_the_queen_logo_V4This Sunday Litter Pick will see a very busy Cemetery, as it is Mothering Sunday so please support our event to raise the profile of FBEC.

Welcome to 2016

A belated 2016 welcome to all our followers,  from the Committee of The Friends of Brandwood End Cemetery.

Who knows what 2016 will hold for the cemetery and all those that visit? The good news is that we appear to have escaped relatively unscathed from the high winds that have battered the area and other than the usual cascades of water from our blocked Victorian drains…….life (as far as we know) has been smooth. The Friends will be meeting with Bereavement Service staff in the next few weeks to discuss a number of issues, not least of all improving fencing around the chapels and our up and coming Lottery Bid with Birmingham and Black Country Wildlife Trust to investigate the Hedgehog population in Brandwood End.

Please keep watching our page and spreading the word.

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Final 2015 Litter Pick Completed!

We were a small select crew that set out on the final litter pick of the year- just 4 of us, but we managed to collect 12 bags of litter before rain stopped play!20151206_100409 (800x600)

The cemetery itself is always kept pretty litter free by the ground staff but there are always pockets of litter that gather, especially in the wind, along fences and hedgerows. The worst offending area is the corner of the site where Broad Lane service road meets the fence. Huge piles of rubbish accumulate road side here …..or are dumped, and blow into the cemetery shrubbery. Below is a before and after photo to give an idea of the problem! You can see the rubbish piled just the other side of the fence.

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We also observed another strange phenomenon today and that was the sight of snowdrops blooming along side daisies!

Our thanks to everyone that has helped at any of our litter picks in 2015 and we hope you will join us in 2016 to continue this very important task. The next litter pick will be on Saturday 5th March 2016

 

A new tree in Diamond Woodland

On Saturday the 12th of December you will find members of the committee of the Friends planting a tree in the Diamond Woodland area opposite to the Lodge to commemorate their 10th year as a Friends organisation.

Saturdays get together will be low key as we are having to meet early at 9.30 to carry out this planting, but we will be having an official  event in the slightly warmer spring weather when the tree should be starting to wake. Members or anyone with an interest is welcome to join us on Saturday. We should be on site between 9.30 and 10am.

We will be planting a Alnus incana Aurea  (Golden Alder) in the Diamond Woodland area. This beautiful tree will offer colour and interest all year round.

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