Category: Volunteers

Even more of Section B12 cleared.

Another day and another group of volunteers. Why not view our album.?

https://photos.app.goo.gl/73LuEKjuwGizDZPw6

This time we welcomed 7 staff from NIQ who have visited us before so were raring to go. The mood was helped by glorious sunshine so plenty of progress was made. Every group of volunteers that come to help us really do work hard in an effort to clear long lost graves and todays group were no different. Its amazing what can be done in a day, as you will see below.

The photo below is what it looked like at 10am today..

 

….and this is the result after 4 hours work. A great improvement !

 

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.

20th Anniversary Tree Plant.

Many of our followers will know that FBEC are coming to the end of their 20th year and during that time we have been undertaking a number of special projects. One of our main objectives was to raise funds to purchase 15 large standard trees to begin to replace the mature trees in the cemetery that were lost in recent storms.

 

  

On Monday the 9th February, after a lot of planning, we arrived at our ‘special’ day when several groups got together to finally plant the trees we had purchase.

Our lead planters would be 13 pupils from St Albans RC Primary School and they would be assisted by Birmingham Tree People, Deutsche Bank staff, RLB staff, Gardening Volunteers and FBEC Committee members.

Very soon they had planted seven large trees, that dwarfed many of their planters! A really good mornings work. A huge thank you to the pupils who all showed such enthusiasm and worked really hard to dig out the holes and then place the trees  (With adult help) and finally backfill and stamp the soil down ready for a top dressing of chippings.  Several worms were rescued during this process and relocated by pupils to safer areas!

To see more photos follow this link.

Well done to all concerned.

We have many people to thank:

The Staff and pupils of St Albans RC Primary School

Steve Flood, a City Tree Officer for helping choose the trees and their sites and facilitating their transportation across the City to Brandwood End.

Bereavement Services and Gary Humphries, a member of the ground Staff,  who went above and beyond moving heavy trees, digging initial holes, delivering good quality soil and chippings for backfilling and generally helping facilitate the children’s activities.

Matt and Birmingham Tree People  who helped us order the trees and supported us with their team on site, as well as sharing their tree knowledge with FBEC and the pupils.

FBEC Committee and our Gardening Volunteers, Deutsche Bank staff and RLB staff.

The Patrick Trust and all the individual contributors who helped finance the Trees.

Join our Friendly Gardening Volunteers?

Come and join our Grave Gardeners as they help to clear years of shrubbery shrouding graves. WE ARE A small friendly group who chat whilst WE work ,where you can do as much or as little as you want.
Sunday January 18th ,Saturday February 21st .Saturday March 14th
Meet by the Lodge on the main drive at 11am. Generally we finish by 12.30pm.
We have the tools, gloves etc but you will need stout footwear and suitable clothing. A kneeler may be useful.

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.

AVOVE volunteers battle wind and rain to clear a coppice area.

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.