Tag: brandwood end cemetery

Firefighters Memorial Day 4th May

Firefighters Memorial Day will have been marked by a minutes silence at midday today to honour Firefighters who lost their lives in the line of duty.  Over 2300 such deaths are recorded.

Brandwood End is the resting place of Sydney Charles Tropman who was one of the above number.

As part of National Cemeteries Week we would like to highlight some of his story.

FBEC – SIDNEY CHARLES TROPMAN WW2 FIREMAN

National Cemeteries Week 2022

NATIONAL CEMETERIES WEEK 2022 will be running from 30th April till 8th May this year. It is a chance for Cemeteries and their Friends Groups to shout about what they are doing in relation to the many aspects they are involved in- from Remembrance to biodiversity. During that week the Friends will be signposting you to items of interest in Brandwood End.  Watch this site and our notice boards within the cemetery for more information.

Recording of memorials.

The Friends are working alongside ‘Caring for God’s Acre’ in a project to record details of all the memorials in Brandwood End Cemetery.

FBEC members were joined on site today by Val Hart from Balsall Heath Local History Society. We hope Val will be sharing her experience with the rest of the Balsall Heath Local History Society. This will be a long term project and we soon hope to be able to give you details on how you can become involved yourselves.

Our thanks to George from Caring for God’s Acre for her guidance and to Val, Lisa, Pat,  Julia and Jane for their efforts…..in the rain!

 

Gallipoli Campaign remembered.

Despite the ‘lockdown’ restrictions, the Friends were able to support a small gathering  to remember those lost as a result of the ill-fated Gallipoli Campaign.

FBEC Chairman Julia Griffin, Vice Chairman Coral Howard and member Pat Franklin joined Ian Binnie (Gallipoli Association),  Colonel (Retd.) Bob Carruthers (Royal Warwickshire Regiment Association) and Richard Millington (Warwickshire Yeomanry Association) joined together to remember all those who served in the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign of World War One.

For those with an interest, you can follow this link to a brochure containing more details prepared by the Gallipoli Association.   Anzac booklet.

New fence will improve view of Chapels.

Yet again Bereavement Services have come up trumps and installed a lovely new permanent fence around the chapel buildings. The original fencing was a temporary ‘builders yard’ type- and gave this magnificent building a look of  ‘waiting for demolition’ . Nothing could be further from the truth!

The new fence is a finer mesh and a shade of green that means it is less of an obstruction to the view of the chapels. We hope soon to be able to install some permanent information boards on the fence.

The ‘eyes’ of the chapels are restored !

Anyone visiting the cemetery in the next few days will see some fantastic work being undertaken. After many years the boards on the windows are being removed and replaced with reinforced Perspex, thus exposing the fantastic terracotta trace work and allowing light into the interior space.

An unexpected effect is that the magnificent trees surrounding the building are reflected out again from the glass creating a magical vision.

Our thanks to Bereavement Services for facilitating this and the contractors for their care installing the Perspex-  as great thought has gone into the best way to fix this!

 

 

More information on testing of headstones .

Took my daily exercise in the cemetery today and thought I would take a few photos of the extent of graves failing a stress test. These stones are in danger of toppling under minor pressure, so have been marked with blue tape and staked, to allow time for next of kin to have them correctly fixed by a Stonemason, and to warn the public to keep clear of them. In the older sections there are quite a few large stones needing action.

 

Latest addition to the Screen Wall.

Early in December a member of our committee was lucky enough to be in the cemetery when a new name was added to the screen wall, adjacent to the Cross of Sacrifice on the main drive.

The work was undertaken by Chargehand Stonemason –  Commonwealth War Graves Commission – Mike Witham.

Mike has undertaken work for the CWWGC all over the world in various cemeteries and on December 1st he found himself in Brandwood End.

The names of those who lost their lives during the Wars, and are buried in the communal grassed areas either side of the main drive, are remembered on the  screen walls. They were either without family or family were unable to afford to finance a grave at that time, but they are individually named on the two screen walls that lie either side of the main drive adjacent to the Cross of Sacrifice.

Our understanding is that family recently followed up his records and approached the CWWGC to have his name added. The Friends would love to talk to the family, so if one of them is reading this or if you know who they are, could you put us in touch? Please e mail us on friendsofbec@gmail.com

The work undertaken by Mike and other  CWWGC Stonemasons must be admired as its longevity enables families  to see a lasting record of their relatives and a recognition of their sacrifice.

How many varieties can you spot? Send us your photos.

Our thanks to our committee member, Carola Klein, for her observations and photographs of Fungi in the cemetery. We notice that this year the huge ‘Fairy Rings’ we saw last year have not reappeared.

We know that many of our web site followers take their cameras along when they visit Brandwood End. We are always interested to see your results if you think you have an interesting shot, whether that is an unusual headstone, wildlife or flora and fauna. Can you e mail them to us at friendsofbec@gmail.com

CWWGC remember those lost in the longest air raid.

Since its opening in 1899 Brandwood End Cemetery has been a place of burial and remembrance for over 350 souls lost as a result of enemy action. Many are remembered under the ‘Commonwealth War Graves’ umbrella but many lie in family graves. During the Blitz hundreds of civilians lost their lives in the City and Brandwood End is the resting place of many of those. Our Civilian Garden of Remembrance is a peaceful place dedicated especially to those civilians. We have reproduced below a ‘post’ that the CWWGC featured on their site as a record of the event.
On the 11th December, 1940, the residents of Birmingham appeared from their air raid shelters after suffering the longest raid of the Blitz.
For 13 hours the city was pounded by hundreds of German bombers, with over 150 civilians killed. They are commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in the Civilian War Dead Roll of Honour located near St. George’s Chapel in Westminster Abbey in London.
Can we also refer you to the web site of Birmingham Air Raid Association.