Friends of Billing Road Cemetery celebrate first year of achievements in Northampton

During this first year, along with lots of ‘behind the scenes work’ we held our first AGM that put FoBRC on a more official footing and have either organised or taken part in many events including;

• Heritage Open Days, when we gave guided tours of the cemetery over two days.
• The ‘It’s your neighbourhood’ scheme in association with RHS, East Midlands in Bloom and Northampton Town Council when we received a Level 3 classification and certificate.
• The Big Butterfly Count.
• Our first biodiversity study in the cemetery arranged by Nicola Clarke, Community Engagement Officer, idverde and the RSPB.
• Worked with The Northamptonshire Family History Society (NFHS) to record the inscriptions on the remaining grave monuments in BRC – this will add to their library of monument inscriptions in Northamptonshire Cemeteries,
• In addition to some of our members, who pick up litter on a daily basis while walking in the cemetery, we have organised litter picks in the cemetery and surrounding streets – we would like to thank members of the Northamptonshire Litter Wombles who have often answered the call to arms and Veolia for promptly collecting the piles of bags and other waste collected, we have also...
• Started to compile an archive of burials, stories and historical information about the cemetery – if you have any information that could add to our archive, please contact us.

Our committee members have attended the quarterly ‘Cemeteries Forum’ meetings with West Northamptonshire Council and we have regular liaison with idverde regarding the ground keeping aspects of BRC. This has led to what is probably our most noticeable achievement this year.

Following a meeting in November between Nicola and our committee member lead for ‘Built Heritage and Conservation’, the two outer pillars of the Billing Road Entrance were uncovered by the idverde team, during the routine hedge cutting along Billing Road. These pillars have not been seen for many years and, although in a poor condition, we were pleased to find that they are mainly intact – work is needed to conserve these!

We would like to thank all involved in the above and look forward to continuing to work with you in 2025. We will start our events calendar with a celebration on the weekend of the Big Garden Bird Watch – more to follow.

For more information on FoBRC, please contact us - email [email protected] on our website https://fobrc.org or on Facebook – Friends of Billing Road Cemetery https://www.facebook.com/groups/6035200613275182/?ref=share_group_link or, if you would like to enquire about membership [email protected]