Category: Gardening
Busy day with Deutsche Bank.
The team from Deutsche Bank worked really hard today and revealed several grave sites and headstones that have not seen the light of day for many years. Well done team and as many of you were ‘returners’ we hope to see you next spring.
If you want to see how much work they actually did, follow this link.
Reminder for Grave Gardeners.
GRAVE GARDENERS Group are meeting up at 11am this Sunday the 20th September. Meet Steven by the Lodge at 11am
Busy day, as we also have an organised ‘Walk in Nature’ as part of our Heritage Open programme. We still have places on this walk so email us on…. friendsofbec@gmail.com
Where did July go!
What a dry few months we have had! The cemetery is bone dry and towards the end of the month we did experience a small grass fire following a blaze in a nearby property but it was very quickly brought under control by local neighbours with hoses and buckets. A reminder again not to leave glass in the cemetery as that can also be a culprit for starting fires in such dry conditions.
Our Grave Gardeners have been busy working in the Civilian Garden area on the hedge, which was now nest free and very wild!
Our thanks to Sue and Ray who keep the weeding, dead heading and under hedge area clear but the hedge itself required many hands and luckily we had plenty of helpers to tame it!
Weather Affects Grave Gardeners event 27th June.
This Saturday the 27th June is one of the scheduled dates for our Grave Gardeners to meet on site but, as everyone will be aware, there is a heatwave at the moment.
Many of the regulars have decided not to attend for health reasons and we think this is pretty sensible but representatives of FBEC will be on the main drive by the Lodge at 11am in case anyone does turn up. (We are aware that this is as much a social gathering as a work party!)
We have decided that we will make a decision with anyone that turns up as to whether we do a short gardening session or not. Who knows what the weather may bring tomorrow?
HSBC Bank staff back to help again.
This is the third time we have welcomed HSBC staff to the cemetery to assist with the clearing of shrubbery from graves. Many corporate companies allow their staff one or two days a year to undertake projects in the community. FBEC are very pleased that HSBC have continued to support the Friends and look forward to seeing them on site again.
Flower tubs starting to bloom.
Those that follow the activities of the Friends will know that, working with Brandwood Buzz, we have been able to install extra flower tubs on the main drive and also at the entrance from Broad Lane.
Thanks to Kay, who takes charge of planting and watering the tubs, we now have a wonderful display. There are 4 large tubs and 4 small.
We do hope that they brighten your visit to the cemetery.
National ‘Make a difference day’
Make a Difference Day today...to celebrate volunteers and what they bring to their community.
The Friends of Brandwood End Cemetery would like to highlight all the volunteers that give their time in the cemetery. Yes, it helps the overall look of the cemetery but you all do so much more for each others mental health and physical wellbeing. A win win all round.
Also a shout out to those that follow our facebook site and jump to help others with queries, searching for graves etc. Well done to all of you and we hope you get as much reward from your interactions as all of the FBEC Committee do. Keep doing what you are doing.
Here are just a few of our volunteer groups but there are many more who help us in Brandwood End Cemetery:
Grave Gardeners
Corporate ‘grave clearing’ volunteers
Poppy Crossers
Tree Guardians
Headstone photographers
Data base champians
Researchers
Civilian Garden maintainers
Litter Pickers
Committee members
………. and many others who help as and when they can with whatever needs doing.
PLEASE KEEP ON DOING WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND THANK YOU ALL.
Deutsche Bank Volunteers at work again.
Lovely weather welcomed 10 enthusiastic staff from Deutsche Bank to the cemetery to carry on with our ‘Grave shrubbery’ project.
In our 20th year we aimed to clear all the shrubbery from Section 16 and photograph all the headstones for our data base. This year we continue to extend that project to another section, B12.
Ten members of staff spent all day clearing ground level Brambles and Holly and managed to uncover several rows of previously obscured graves that hadn’t been accessible for many years. if you want to see some before and after shots then follow this link to our album.
Tree Guardians.
Most of our followers will know that we have been planting trees this year to replace those lost in storms and through age. Our initial planting was with Fruit and nut Village and we were able to plant a small fruit sapling tree area . We followed this in February with 15 larger standard trees, all of which were special in their own way and complimented the existing planting designed by Louden in the late 1800’s.
As warmer weather approaches we sent out a message on our facebook site to ask for Tree Guardians who would take on the watering of all of the trees for the remainder of this year and as long as they need it. Once again our supporters didnt let us down and very soon we formed a team of 8 who willingly adopted a couple of trees each to car for. Our thanks to them for offering their time to give these trees the best start in life.
