Restoration, conservation and respectful enjoyment of Brandwood End Cemetery and Chapels
Category: The Chapels
Brandwood End Cemetery has two beautiful twin Grade II mortuary chapels in serious disrepair and FBEC have undertaken a determined campaign to save them. All news and information about this campaign will be kept in this category
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.
If you would like to see what has been achieved at their site you can follow this link .
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.
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.
‘Heritage Stone Access’ began work this week to clear shrubbery and re-fix loose and fallen masonry on the chapels, in an effort to slow deterioration pending funding being available to undertake renovation work.
As we all know, money is tight in Birmingham City Council and therefore renovation of the chapels remains some way off. (The majority of grant applications would demand match funding as a minimum from the site/building owners- BCC)
Bereavements Department are keen, along with the Friends, to try and keep the Chapels from deteriorating further during this lean period so have engaged a reputable company, with a good history of work on heritage buildings, to carry out various works. This includes making the building ‘pigeon proof’. (Large amounts of pigeon poo have already been professionally removed!) Shrubbery has also been sprayed with weed killers and partially removed.
Those eagled eyed visitors to the cemetery will have noticed that since the pigeons have been denied access to the buildings they have taken to roosting on the tower and creating quite a mess! Whilst on site the contractors will also be re-fixing masonry that has fallen (as seen across). We all watch with interest.
Can we issue a gentle reminder to all our members that the annual membership of FBEC is now due. It remains unchanged at £6 (£3 unwaged). All members should have received their renewal reminders with the AGM notification and this year there is an option to pay by annual standing order. Please contact us on our e mail friendsofbec@gmail.com for more details.
FBEC depend on our membership fees to produce our 2 newsletters each year, postage costs and to print the information we display in our Cemetery notice boards, so we do hope we can count on your continued support.
Anyone who may be considering becoming a supporter of FBEC, please refer to the information on this web site.
Christmas is almost upon us and the committee of Friends of Brandwood End Cemetery would like to wish all our supporters ‘Seasons Greetings’. Although we seem to have made no progress with the Chapels in 2014, due to the financial constraints being experienced by Birmingham City Council, we have never the less been busy on other projects in the cemetery. Can we thank Bereavement Services staff for their co operation, our project sponsors and all of the volunteers who have worked alongside us. Thank you all again and we look forward, hopefully, to more progress in 2015.
2013 has been a year when Friends of Brandwood End have had to take a step back and think again about the way they want to move forward in 2014. We were all very disappointed when Birmingham City Council had to withdraw their financial support for a lottery bid relating to the twin terracotta mortuary chapels at the centre of the cemetery. Along with many local organisations we saw the time when Birmingham would be in a position to support any bid we proposed move further and further away. We are now working with Bereavements Department to investigate alternative fund raising options but in the meantime we will continue with our other achievable projects within the cemetery, whilst keeping the chapels at the front of our campaign.
Just prior to Christmas 2012 New Vision Community Group were part of the Christmas Fayre at St Albans School. FBEC, as members of this group, ran a small competition for the pupils to draw what they saw and liked within Brandwood End Cemetery. These are the three prize winners.
This beautiful drawing of our Chapels was produced by Nancy McAndrew, who is 10 years old.
Maisey Cox, aged 9, has captured the avenues of trees that make Brandwood End cemetery so beautiful.
Our final winner is just 5! Roman Addy has managed to pack so many things into his picture. Foxes, trees, angels, grave stones, mushrooms….and even a cat he saw!
Full marks for observation.
Each of the three winners will receive a prize of some items to use for their future artistic endeavours and their efforts will be displayed on our notice boards as well as here on our site.
We would like to thank them for taking the time to enter our competition.
Victorian twin terracotta Chapels at Brandwood End Cemetery
The Friends of Brandwood End Cemetery are delighted to announce that following close liaison with Councillor Timothy Huxtable, Cabinet Member, for Transport, Environment and Regeneration, and Birmingham City Council Bereavement Service Officers, conservation planning has been granted for enabling works to be undertaken on the Victorian twin terracotta Grade II listed Chapels in order to improve security.
Superintendent's Lodge at Brandwood End Cemetery about to undergo a facelift
In addition, the Superintendent’s Lodge (Grade ll listed by association with the chapels), which was rendered uninhabitable by flooding in December 2010, is to be refurbished by Birmingham City Council. Amongst other uses, consideration is being given to the Lodge eventually becoming a Visitors’ Centre and for local community group use. The works include the provision of a garden area and refurbishment of the existing toilet block.
The enabling works have begun on the Chapels and work will commence on the Lodge shortly.
Our Annual General Meeting will be held on Thursday 19th April 2012 at The Brandwood Centre from 19.30. All interested parties are welcome; only members are entitled to vote.
The Friends have been working in close co-operation with Birmingham City Council since 2005 and have achieved many improvements to the cemetery in general. Combined efforts towards the repair and restoration of the Chapels will be ongoing.
Anyone interested in supporting the Friends in their endeavours can obtain more information here, by e-mailing us at friendsofbec@gmail.com or by writing to us c/o The Lakeside Centre, 180 Lifford Lane, Kings Norton, Birmingham, B30 3NU.
A “Save our Chapels” petition was presented to Birmingham City Council on Tuesday, 7th September by Councillor Neville Summerfield (Brandwood Ward) on behalf of the Friends of Brandwood End Cemetery. The Friends are endeavouring to prevent the further deterioration of the unique Grade II listed twin terracotta mortuary chapels which form the Cemetery’s centrepiece.
The Friends of Brandwood End Cemetery was constituted in 2005 and the elected Committee has worked assiduously to improve and maintain this very beautiful Victorian cemetery. The main aim has always been to restore and repair the chapels to their former glory and to involve a wider community use.
Work was undertaken to make the chapels “safe” in 2007 and Architects and Structural Engineers were commissioned to undertake an Options Appraisal in 2009: the Friends are seeking to further the Appraisal recommendations with Birmingham City Council, the owners of the cemetery.
The Friends have taken their role within the cemetery very seriously and have been responsible for, amongst other aspects:
restoring the Civilian Garden of Remembrance,
new section markers,
boulders to mark public grave sites,
remembrance of the war dead by placing a poppy cross on over 300 war graves every November, and the organisation of a Service of Remembrance,
bi-monthly litter picks, which assist the limited ground staff with maintenance
Covering over 50 acres of land, Brandwood End Cemetery was created by the Victorians as a place of peace and tranquillity. Now, over 110 years later, the cemetery welcomes approximately 52,000 visitors annually. The visitors tend graves, take exercise, appreciate the trees (through tree walks), listen to the birds, marvel at the flora and fauna and are testament to the value of this beautiful open space.
