Friends of Brandwood End Cemetery

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

Jane Edwards — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 22:28:47 +0000

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.

Carol Service a success!

Jane Edwards — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 22:18:19 +0000

What a wonderful afternoon we had in Brandwood End as we were joined, for another Christmas Carol Service, by the Choir of St Albans R C Primary School.

The rain stayed away and the temperature was just right to enable the choir to sing with gusto. We had some lovely traditional carols and some more modern ones- with innovative additions!

Our thanks to all the pupils and staff for starting off Christmas for everyone again this year. This is becoming an annual event!!

Carol Service. December 10th – 2pm

Jane Edwards — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 22:55:43 +0000

Come along and join us in the Civilian Garden as we listen to the Choir of St Alban’s R C Primary school as they deliver a selection of Carols for Christmas .

The venue will be signed in the cemetery. The Civilian Garden is near the Broad Land ‘walk in’ gate.

Wednesday 10th December 2pm.

Stalwart supporters out in the rain.

Jane Edwards — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 22:41:41 +0000

Thank you to the15 supporters who turned out, in really horrid weather, to collect 17 bags of wind blown litter at our final Litter Pick of 2026.

Thank you to the ‘Foster family’ (on the left) who were supporting their daughter in her volunteering journey with us for her Duke of Edinburgh award.

St Albans R C Primary School Choir sing Carols in the Cemetery.

Jane Edwards — Wed, 03 Dec 2025 22:47:05 +0000

Mark Wednesday the 10th December at 2pm in your diary and come and enjoy the Choir from St Albans R C Primary as they sing Carols in the Civilian Garden area of Brandwood End Cemetery.

The Civilian Garden is signed to the left off the main drive as you head towards the Broad Lane entrance (from the direction of the chapels). This will be an outdoor event so we would suggest that you dress for cold weather!

For the last few years we have welcomed St Albans and their Carols have been more and more popular, so spread the word.

December 7th Litter Pick

Jane Edwards — Wed, 03 Dec 2025 22:34:38 +0000

Come and join the Friends at their last LITTER PICK of 2025. We will be meeting by the Lodge on the main drive at 10am this coming Sunday the 7th December and will be finishing at 11.30am

We have the litter pickers and bags. All we need is the man power!

Air raid November 11th 1940

Jane Edwards — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 12:16:34 +0000

Today, 19th November 1940 was an awful day for many civilians in Birmingham as there was a devastating WW2 bombing raid.

During a recent project, to discover those often in unmarked graves, the Friends have added close to 50 names and grave sites to their Poppy Placing project. Many of them were whole families lost in the raid. Lest we Forget.

The Friends are lucky enough to be able to call upon Matt Felkin who holds many of the records for Birmingham Air Raids Remembrance Association. He has posted this additional information.

Code for Birmingham ….Regenschirm (Umbrella)

Tuesday November 19th 20th 1940

Weather -clear sky with some fog at first, rain spreading in from the east

Minor activity during the day

Birmingham was attacked by Luftflotte 2 and 3, two primary divisions of the Luftwaffe

439 long range bomber’s dispatched

Luftflotte 2 -142 aircraft to Birmingham,107 reached the target area .

Luftflotte 3- 297 to Birmingham,249 reached the target area

Bombs dropped –

6x SD1800

9x SD1400

17x SC1000

32x LMB (para mine) small

16x LMA (para mine) large

816 x BSK (Bomben SchaltKasten) incendiary container. theoretically, a He 111 could carry 1,152 of them. In practice, it would carry a mixed load:-

105x SC500

22x Flam 500 (oil bomb) The original large incendiary device, the so called Oil Bomb which was known to the Germans as the flam or flammenbombe.

22x LZZ (long delay fuse bomb)

292x SC250

45x flam 250

2139 x SC50

Areas Affected

West Midlands Police Records Raid 43 -19th /20th November 1940 Air Raid Warning Red was received at 6.50 p.m. on Tuesday 19th November and White at 4.29 a.m. on Wednesday 20th November. During this period an intense raid was made on all districts of the City. (C District – Gerrard Street, George Street Garage, ICI Witton;, D-Division – Nechells Gas Company, GEC, Hughes, BBC, Queen Street, Aston Hall Road; E-Division – Coventry Road, Stratford Road)

The areas least affected were Kingstanding, Harborne, Northfield, Kings Norton, Stechford, Kings Heath. 18 Parachute mines (4 unexploded), 677 High Explosive, including about 42 Delayed Action type, 243 Incendiary Bomb incidents have been reported.17 of the incendiary bombs were of the oil type. The first report of a bomb being dropped was at 7.25.

Carols with St Albans R C Primary School Choir

Jane Edwards — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 11:35:43 +0000

We are so pleased to be welcoming St Albans pupils back again to the cemetery for a short burst of Christmas Carols. This will be their 3rd visit and we hope this tradition continues for years to come!

Please come and support the choir on December 10th at 2pm in the Civilian Garden area, near Broad Lane gate on the main drive.

Deutsche Bank staff power through shrubbery to uncover graves.

Jane Edwards — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 20:58:49 +0000

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.

Armistice Day

Jane Edwards — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 20:38:16 +0000

Deutsche Bank volunteers join FBEC members in a 2 minutes silence at the Cross of Sacrifice today before continuing with their grave clearance task.