Jewish Cemeteries in Liverpool

Over the years there are believed to have been nine Jewish cemeteries in Liverpool. Currently only two are open to new burials and of the others, some are in a poor state and others no longer there at all.

The Liverpool Jewish Archives are held by the Liverpool Record Office and date back to 1780. The first Jewish cemetery of the Old Hebrew Congregation was in the garden of a house in Upper Frederick Street, with the first recorded interment taking place in 1789. The congregation also had a cemetery in Oakes Street, off London Road, which had its first burial in 1802.

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Oakes Street closed in 1837 but burials continued at Upper Frederick Street for the rest of the 19th Century. However the more prominent Jewish cemetery during this period was at Deane Road, which was consecrated the year Oakes Street stopped taking burials. Deane Road contains the graves of many eminent Jewish Victorians, including David Lewis who founded the Lewis’s chain of department stores and Charles Mozley, Liverpool’s first Jewish Mayor.

Deane Road cemetery stopped being used regularly when Broadgreen Cemetery opened in 1904. The last interment was in 1929 but it is still there today and has undergone an extensive restoration thanks to a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. This has seen the renovation of the archway entrance, cleaning and re-fixing of headstones and the opening of a small visitor centre.

After the opening of Broadgreen Cemetery, all those buried at Oakes Street and Upper Frederick Street were exhumed and re-interred. No trace of those cemeteries exist anymore. Broadgreen remains the cemetery of the Old Hebrew Congregation, who continue to worship at the Princes Road Synagogue, a magnificent structure consecrated in 1874 and the only Grade I listed building in Toxteth.

The Liverpool New Hebrew Congregation was founded after breaking away from the Old Hebrew Congregation in the middle of the 19th Century. For eighty years they worshipped in a synagogue at Hope Place on a site that is now occupied by the Unity Theatre. Their first cemetery was at Green Lane in Tuebrook.

Jewish Cemetery Entrance, Everton

Green Lane Cemetery is still there today with the earliest headstone dating from 1842. However the site is sadly sealed off and overgrown. It has been out of use since 1921, when Long Lane Cemetery was opened, next to the city council run Everton Cemetery in Fazakerley. Amongst the interments at Long Lane is Brian Epstein, manager of The Beatles who died in 1967 at the age of just 32. The cemetery has not been used since 2008 when the congregation became defunct.

There are two independent Jewish burial grounds in Liverpool. Rice Lane Jewish Cemetery is situated off Hazeldale Road in Walton and closed in 1983. There is also a dedicated Jewish section at West Derby Cemetery in Lowerhouse Lane which remains open for burials in reserved plots.

Finally in South Liverpool, Springwood Jewish Cemetery is on the other side of Springwood Avenue from Allerton Cemetery. This is used by the Childwall and Allerton congregations, which worship at synagogues in Dunbabin Road and Mather Avenue respectively.

Sarsfield Memorials is proud to provide memorials to all denominations. We can supply headstone and slab covers with inscriptions in both English and Hebrew. Examples of some of the Jewish memorials can be seen here and if you wold like to discuss further please contact us, we will be happy to provide a free no obligation quote.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cemeteries at Easter

At Easter cemetery visits often take place for the first time of the year by people going to their loved ones graves.  As a Spring holiday, it can be the perfect opportunity to visit the cemetery or churchyard to tend to the graves which have been neglected  during the cold damp winter months.

The weather at Easter is getting warmer and the days are longer and brighter. This is reflected in the types of flowers that are traditionally placed on graves at Easter. Bright lilies and daisies are a common theme in Easter floral arrangements. They signify love, hope and purity  with Christ’s resurrection being reflected by the single flower stem of the lily.

The milder and brighter weather also gives the opportunity to tidy the area around the graves, removing any weeds and dead flowers, and clean out the memorial pots. People may also consider arranging to have the headstone professionally cleaned or have other restoration work carried out.

Around the world, there are some different traditions when it comes to visiting the cemeteries at Easter.  In Russia, where the winters are particularly cold, families regularly use the occasion as the opportunity to visit cemeteries. However the Orthodox Church strongly discourages this, reminding people that Easter is the faith’s most important religious festival and should be spent in worship, not visiting graves.

In Connecticut in the north eastern United States, sunrise services have been taking place at Abington Cemetery on Easter morning for as long as anybody can remember. Despite the often freezing temperatures, scores of people turn out to hear through loudspeakers a sermon given by the minister from the local 18th century congregational church. Prayers are said and hymns sung, then many of the worshippers go to the church to warm up with coffee and donuts.

The Chinese festival of Qingming sometimes coincides with Easter. Sometimes known as Tombsweeping, this is an occasion when Chinese communities around the world visit cemeteries and tidy up the graves, then offer food and drink to their loved ones.

Once Easter is over, summer is on the horizon. That is when cemeteries become much brighter as leaves grown on trees and plants flower. They are open longer, giving families more time to visit their loved ones graves in far more pleasant surroundings that go some way to helping the life be celebrated, rather just the loss be mourned.

 

Grand National Graves

The Grand National steeplechase was first run at Aintree in 1839 and except for the war years and the void race of 1993, has taken place there ever since.

The first winner of the Grand National was Lottery, ridden by Jem Mason. He was unable to repeat the success the following year when the horse refused a jump. Mason, who attended Harrow school and was the son of a horse dealer, was fifty years old when he died of throat cancer at his London home in 1866.  He was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery.

redrum

Photo by Richard Knowles

Mason’s death came two years after that of Captain Martin Becher, after whom the race’s most famous fence, got its name. Becher’s Brook. A veteran of the Napoleonic Wars he was already considering retirement when he took part in the 1839 race. He fell at the first brook and sheltered in the water whilst the other horses jumped over, hence the name given to it. On climbing to safety he was said to comment that the water had tasted filthy without the benefit of whisky. He never raced again and after his death in 1864 he was buried at Willesden Cemetery in North London. This cemetery closed in 1891 and is now in a sadly overgrown state.

The Earls of Sefton owned the land on which Aintree racecourse was developed. The second earl, William Molyneux, laid the foundation stone for the grandstand in 1829. He died at his London home in November 1838, before the first Grand National was run and his grave is in St Mary’s churchyard in Hanwell.

In 1949 Aintree racecourse was bought from the Earl of Sefton. The management was taken over by former Gaiety girl Mirabel Topham. She constructed a motor racing track within the course which hosted the British Grand Prix five times, the last one being in 1962. The Topham family eventually sold the course to developer Bill Davies in 1973 and Mirabel, who died in 1980, is buried in  the family vault at Pantasaph Friary in Flintshire.

Mirabel sold the racecourse in the same year that Red Rum won the first of his three Grand National races. Rummy, as he was affectionately known, also won the race in 1974 and 1977 but was retired the following year after an injury. He was a regular visitor to Aintree in subsequent years and died in 1995 at the age of thirty. He was subsequently buried there and his grave is now visited by thousands of visitors to Aintree year as the race continues to grow in popularity.