Ray and Sue Howell are Friends of the cemetery and work mainly in the Civilian Garden. This week Ray took to tidying the top of the hedge, which had already grown since the BCC Maintenance Team reduced its height! Sue was equally busy trying to tidy up access to the toilet block!
What a difference a ‘cut hedge’ can make. Next time you are in the cemetery have a look at the area inside the Chapel Fence. The hedge had become well out of control but the Grounds Maintenance team, who cut the grass, pitched in and now it is neat and tidy. Thank you .
A bit of a mess ! Now much tidier!
Today we were pleased to welcome five Deutsche Bank staff to the cemetery to continue the clearance of section B10 that their colleagues, and our Grave Gardeners, had begun this summer.
Despite really heavy rain for half an hour they were able to clear an amazing amount of shrubbery and expose another 8+graves that have been hidden for many years. Well done everyone.
This section is one of the older areas and has been neglected for some time but recent work by our Grave Gardeners and Deutsche Bank staff has meant that we have now made serious inroads. Well done to you all as I think you will agree the result is stunning.
If you would like to see more of the action today you can follow this link.
The Friends of Brandwood End Cemetery celebrate the cemetery all year round as a calm and peaceful place to visit but this week is a special week to ask everyone to remember their local cemetery and maybe pay a visit as part of NATIONAL CEMETERIES WEEK. Cemeteries may be well kept or they may be neglected. Nationally many will have Friends groups, some will not. Wherever they are they will be especially celebrated this week and so will all the paid and volunteer staff that work within them.
This Sunday, the 8th June, our Grave Gardeners will be meeting by the Lodge at 11am to continue their work in Brandwood End. They meet every month and, along with corporate groups, they strive to keep Brandwood looking loved and cared for. It’s a 53 acre site so progress is sometimes slow and not evident but we assure you we are all working hard to make this space welcoming.
Well done to all our volunteers. In April volunteers gave a total of 108 hours of their time to keep the cemetery looking cared for. (In many months the hours given exceed this total) Supported by Bereavements Ground Staff and BCC Grass cutting team we all work to make Brandwood End Cemetery a welcoming, safe and secure space.
A last minute visit by four employees of Deutsche Bank meant that we were able to clear an area at the back of Section 14 yesterday. Our thanks to Steven and Malcolm, who help organise the areas cleared and cheer the volunteers on, and also to Gill who helps provide refreshments (Always arriving with extra biscuits)
Before and after photographs show how hard they worked
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.
Join our Grave Gardening team, along with Fruit and Nut Village, to plant some new trees in the cemetery. We are making a start on replacing the trees lost in last years storms. Meet opposite the Lodge at 11am on the 6th April.
Spring has sprung in a really unusual place. This was obviously a very determined daffodil!
Before Covid we worked with Birmingham Trees for Life to plant 15 standard size trees on the boundary with Broad Lane and Sunderton Road. A few years on these trees needed their tree ‘guards’ and stakes removing so this morning seven volunteers from our Grave Gardening group set about that task and also made a start clearing brambles around the. Our thanks to all of them for their efforts as brambles are especially unpleasant to deal with !
