Category: Heritage

September means Heritage Open

Heritage Open began on the 11th and runs for Just over a week. The Friends always get involved and we still have space on an added walk titled ‘Who Lies Beneath’ led by Dr Josie at 10.30 on Tuesday 15th.

On Sunday 20th, Shelly from Leaf Arts will lead a wonderful walk through nature, accompanied by music of various genres abs eras.

If you would like to come along please e mail us at friendsofbec@gmail.com

Heritage open walk in nature

Stroll amid the nature of the cemetery accompanied by a soundtrack of music across the ages and genres. Shelley will be repeating last year’s well attended, and enjoyed, event with a new music selection. Email us on friendsofbec@gmail.com to book a place or ring 07811393259.

SUNDAY 20TH SEPTEMBER 11AM

Seasons Greetings to all our supporters

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.

The end of Heritage Open Week

What a wonderful week the Friends of Brandwood End Cemetery have enjoyed as part of Birmingham Heritage Open. From Music, to history, to art and symbolism!

Our thanks to everyone that took part in our four events. It was wonderful to introduce so many people to the cemetery who had never visited before or who often visit one area of our 53 acres and have never explored the rest. We have also had a lot of visitors from outside Birmingham this year.

Special thanks to Shelley from Leaf Creative Arts and Jodie and Rachel from Caring for Gods Acre. Their walks and our History walk proved so popular that we have had to promise to repeat similar events in the Spring.

Finally a special thank you to all our committee of the Friends who have supported these events and especially to Gill for being our photographer. To see extra photographs follow this link

 

Symbolism of Angels.

We had two walks/talks today under the title of ‘Symbolism of Angels’ and both of them were fully booked with 20+ attendees morning and afternoon.

Dr Josie Wall and Dr Rachel Askew kept everyone intrigued with not just symbolism but also a peep into the real stories of those remembered on the headstones. Nothing is what it seems, as we found out!!

Josie and Rachel both work for Caring for Gods Acre and they gave everyone such a wealth of information about some of our wonderful Angels as well as sharing some of their background research.

 

Operation Varsity

The 80th Anniversary of ‘Operation Varsity’ took place earlier this week. Over 3000 planes and gliders dropping troops around the Rhine area. One in five troops taking part were killed. Look it up. A forgotten battle.
Lots of our followers wanted to know more about the Glider Pilot Regiment so here are some links to their facebook site that you can access if you use facebook or their web site.
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https://www.facebook.com/groups/gprpublicgroup
You can also find more information on their web site