On the 9th of February at 10am the Friends will be joined on site by the Forest School pupils from St Augustine’s RC Primary School to plant 15 new mature standard trees in the cemetery. We will be supported by Bereavement Services Ground Staff, Birmingham Tree People, Deutsche Bank and our regular Gardening Volunteers. Watch this site for a report on the day.
Gosh where does the time go? A month has passed and the Volunteer Grave Gardeners are back in the cemetery this Sunday the 18th January. Why not come along and join them? 11am till 12.30pm
The Friends and the cemetery have had a wonderful year with many more volunteers than in previous years, mainly working on our special 20th Anniversary Grave Revealing and Recording Project. Nearly every month in 2025 our volunteers contributed in excess of 120 hours between them, which is the equivalent to 3 full time additional ground staff.
The photographs below show just a few of the volunteers (community and corporate groups) that have pitched in to clear shrubs, take photographs, create data bases, litter pick, marshall events, lead walks, plant trees, liaise with schools, apply for grants, research, honour the fallen and generally keep the community involved and informed.
We can’t forget Bereavements Service staff both on the ground and in Kings Norton office. Without their co operation we would not be able to achieve as much as we do.
Seasons Greetings to you all and let’s hope that 2026 is as productive as 2025 has been.
Despite the warning of bad weather we were joined by volunteers from AVOVE in an attempt to clear a large coppice area that was covering a number of graves.
You can see the coppice that lies behind the volunteers and the outline of a number of graves hidden within the shrubbery. When the team arrived there was none of the predicted wind but the drizzle soaked through your clothes! That drizzle later became torrential rain, but the team were determined to clear the whole coppice.
As you can see by the photograph below, they totally cleared the coppice and uncovered lots of graves that had been hidden for many years.
Twelve Deutsche Bank staff and four FBEC volunteers worked all day to clear several large areas of established self set trees and shrubs on one of the sections in the cemetery. It’s a slow process but we are making headway in the cemetery. It is a little like the Forth Road Bridge as we are sure it grows back almost as fast as we remove it, however much of the shrubbery removed has been in place for many, many years and will only return as ”low level.
The photograph below gives you an idea of the size of coppice/shrubbery we were tackling. If you would like to see more, follow this link.
The larger trees are left as the aim is purely to make access to all graves possible. Often the lower branches may be removed if the tree is well established. Below you can see the area above after clearance.
Many hands make this process easier and so much faster. 2 areas like this and some smaller spots were cleared in todays work.
Deutsche Bank volunteers join FBEC members in a 2 minutes silence at the Cross of Sacrifice today before continuing with their grave clearance task.
Reminder to our lovely team of gardeners. the next Grave Gardening Session is this Saturday the 8th November .Meet at the lodge at 11am.
Why not join us for some chat and a workout?
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!
