Places of interest
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1. The Site of The House of Jacob the Jew and the Medieval Synagogue - The County Hotel
The tour is best started at the County Hotel which marks the very center of the medieval Jewry. The block of land occupied by the hotel and the High Street either side of the Hotel and its car park at the rear defines the main streets where the Jews lived.A quick walk around the block, down Stour Street, left into Jewry Lane and White Horse Lane, finishing back on the High street, will show the relative compactness of the area of the former Jewry. Also it will illustrate how the Jews tended to favour forming a central enclave or nucleus of housing and communal facilities i.e. the immediate area occupied by the Hotel fronting the High Street.
The front of the County Hotel stands on what was originally three plots of land acquired by Jacob the Jew of Canterbury in about 1190. He obtained what was essentially an unlimited lease with a small annual rent payable on the land. The first two plots approximately occupy what is today the hotel tea room and lounge overlapping into what is now the bar. The third plot extended further along by about another twenty feet i.e. over into the lobby area of the hotel.
When Jacob acquired his land he built himself what was described at the time as "a great stone house". The house was long mentioned as a conspicuous local landmark. It would probably have been a "first floor hall" building with the living accommodation on the first floor, with a strong room beneath at semi-basement level.
In his time the house was both his personal residence and place of work. Jacob was the leading Jewish financier of medieval Canterbury, thus his house was in effect like a county bank.
After he died in about 1216, his sons Aaron and Samuel inherited the property and then sold it on to the Cathedral. The Cathedral then let it out to Cressel the Jew. Little is known as to what happened from this time to the expulsion. However by 1290 the property had been divided in two and belonged to two Jews, Aaron son of Vives and Cok Hagin. The latter had the larger part and a piece of ground. After the expulsion it seems that the Cathedral acquired the property from the king. By 1640 the site was part of the "Sarcens Head Inn", which later renamed the "Kings Head", became part of the present County Hotel.
Parts of the Jacob's house survived into modern times. Until 1927 the western wall of the hotel in Stour Street, was the surviving wall of Jacobs House. It was a massive construction made of stone and rubble and was nearly five feet thick! Due to its decayed state it was replaced by a brick wall. While it is reported that some of the wall survived in the cellars a manager of the hotel, Mr Penturo, told me that the interior of the cellar walls is brick, but this is not to say that they may not be facing older stonework. It is quite probable that archaeological investigation would reveal original fabric in the cellar wall and foundations. It should be mentioned that the cellars are not available to be seen by visitors.
An attractive medieval corbel, in the form of a medieval lady with a headdress, is preserved and inserted into a corridor wall on the first floor - reputedly a relic from Jacobs Hall. However the Cortauld Institute were of the opinion that the style of headdress showed it was probably 14th century in date, too late to be contemporary with Jacob but perhaps a link with the later history of his building.
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2. The Site of The Medieval Synagogue - The County Hotel
The County Hotel is also very significant as it lays on the site of the medieval synagogue. The synagogue was sited behind Jacob's house to the south and next to or near to Stour Street. In terms of the modern hotel this is approximately the area of the dining room or assembly room next to and down from the bar. Additionally, running south from the synagogue site were another two houses, the nearest to the synagogue belonging at sometime to Benedict the Jew the other to a Gentile. This last property marks the approximate south boundary of the Jewry.The 17th century antiquarian, William Somner, wrote in 1640, that he thought that the stone parlour of the Sarcen's Head was the "a good part" of the former synagogue. He stated that the parlour was itself "mounted on a vault and ascended by many stone steps" in the manner of Jewish synagogues.
This may well be a credible reference to the remains of the former synagogue - however recent research on the form of medieval Anglo-Jewish synagogues suggests that a building towards the rear of this plot away from the street and at cellar level, should be explored as a possibility. Also medieval synagogues usually had a courtyard as well and it is on the record that the Canterbury synagogue had an adjoining plot of land (of 66 by 15 feet) and that the community held other plots of vacant land. Thus the exact nature of the building and its configuration in this small area behind Jacobs House may be a matter for further investigation.
It is probable that if there was indeed a Talmudic academy it would have been close by. Indeed next door to the synagogue was a house which belonged to Cok Hagin and Aaron son of Vives. Neither of them lived in Canterbury and Cok was a member of the famous Hagin family of London. These facts might indicate that the house was provided as a pious benefaction for the support of scholars.
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3. The House of Cresse the Jew and St Thomas Hospital
On leaving the County Hotel and a very short walk in the direction of the Westgate, the ancient remains of St Thomas Hospital can be seen on the left (or south) side of the street just before Kingsbridge. The hospital is important as it is one of the few earlier medieval buildings (built 1175) in Canterbury to survive above ground level. The hospital was used to shelter pilgrims to the shrine of Thomas a Becket. Also it existed in the time of the medieval Jewry in Canterbury and would have been a familiar sight to Canterbury Jews.Its main Jewish significance is that it enables one to accurately position the house of Cresse the Jew, who lived on the east side of the hospital, that nearest the County Hotel. He built a house right next to the hospital there in 1234 and it effectively marks the outer western boundary of the old Jewry.
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4. Sites of Medieval Jewish Houses - Best Lane and Kings Street
By turning back a little in the direction of the County Hotel, Best Lane will be reached on the left hand side. Best Lane contained other Jewish properties. The bottom corner of the street on the right (south-eastern) corner had a house called "Leaden Porch". The next house up was the stone house of Sampson the Jew. His house marked the northern boundary of the Jewry.Set in the pavement, Opposite the junction of Stour Street is an inscribed stone, declaring "Jews Stone House 1180". Sadly this may be a straightforward mix-up with the actual site of Jacob's House opposite based on Adlers imperfect (though important) map of the Jewry made in the 1930s.
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5. The Kings Street Synagogue
A few minutes walk along from the High street, along Best Lane, leads straight into Kings Street and to the Synagogue of 1847. The synagogue is set back some way from the street on the left, just before the street takes a sharp turn to the right, past a house called the "Black Princes Chantry" (no. 22).The striking and grim obelisks that flank either side of the iron gates to the synagogue grounds are the sign that one has arrived at the right place!
The synagogue is set some way back, obscured by trees. However the Egyptian style columns carrying the frontage are easily seen. The citadel like frontage of the building is forbidding rather than welcoming, discouraging of unwanted attention.
The site itself is a historic one being the old hospital of the Knight's Templar and over the wall was the former Black Princes Chantry referred to previously.
A reporter wrote that the synagogue is somewhat Cecil B de Mille in appearance. It is unusual as there are relatively few structures in the Egyptian style in this country and it is certainly unique for an English synagogue.
If the grounds are closed, other views of the building can be seen by walking around the block, particularly down Mill Lane, which gives some idea of the side and rear of the building.
The gates to the grounds and synagogue are usually kept locked. However the Kings School, off Palace Street nearby, are very helpful about arranging inside visits, which can be arranged through the Personnel Office of the school at the Bursary. It is best to make arrangements in advance.
The synagogue was built in the Egyptian style to designs by Mr. Hezekiah Marshall of Canterbury. It was designed in this style rather then the conventional Gothic revival style, because the community thought "our every tradition associates it with recollections of persecution". However one might think of many more persecution-neutral styles then that of the Pharaohs!
Perhaps this was but a pious explanation, designed to avert the dangers of the "envious eye" of their Christian neighbours. It might be said that the choice of the Egyptian style was evidence of a sophisticated taste as the Egyptian style and all things Egyptian had enjoyed a brief vogue in this country in the wake of the Battle of the Nile.
The exterior of the building expends its main decorative details on the front. The front edges of the building are flanked by massive columns - truncated obelisks, and the main focus is on the two Egyptianate columns, like giant asparagus, which all together support a severely decorated head.
The rest of the building is in brick with a slate roof. The north side of the synagogue containing the two entrances is gentler and more welcoming in appearance, though the main entrance is in a massive stone flanked by more pylons. The gentler effect partly achieved by the use of alternate coloured brick courses. There are alternate courses of grey headers and red-brick stretchers. The rear of the building is very plain and now has a small modern brick annex. The south side of the building forms a narrow passage way with the boundary wall leading to a door that goes into a small irregular shaped vestry at the corner of the building.
The design of the synagogue is very traditional as it follows the Talmudic and traditional forms of synagogue design - perhaps somewhat more closely than may be seen elsewhere. The synagogue has the traditionally recommended twelve windows. It also has the two entries in the favoured location of the north wall, the main entry being through a small vestibule to effect the transition from the everyday to the Holy. The interior is also very lofty in appearance which is again much favoured by tradition. The Kings school and their architects felt when they were restoring the building in 1982 that there was an "unusually high space in the main hall" and they used a special new trunking and horizontal rail to break the effect of height. The front with its columns and temple like appearance, with no central doorway, is highly reminiscent of the classical synagogues in Israel.
The interior is notable for its simplicity and severity. The only relief and decoration is provided by the latticed windows and the obelisk motif repeated through the building i.e. as buttresses for the three roof spans carrying the ceiling, the side pillars of the ark, as prominent elements of the balustrade of the womens' gallery and as smaller decorative flourishes in the benches of the women's section. The rails of the balustrade are all shaped like miniature obelisks!
The only decorative flourish allowed in the whole building is the use of lotus leaves at the top of the truncated obelisks carrying the cornice which all together form a frame for the former Ark.
An old photograph shows that when the synagogue was still in use the effect would have been a little softer. This was due to the customary fixed wooden furnishings and fixtures, the brass candelabra suspended from ceiling. The window above the Ark contained a plaque, with what look like pierced Hebrew letters, declaring "know before whom you stand."
The Ark itself dominated everything and was a powerful focus of the whole building. All of the architectural motifs are centered on and are refer to the design of the Ark. In the original building this effect was heightened by the addition of two smaller obelisks set forward of the Ark itself.
Back in the pleasant garden grounds of the synagogue, another exceptional feature is the bath house (Mikveh) just opposite the secondary doorway at the north side of the building. Mikvehs are generally rare survivors. This one is a brick hut with a slate roof built in the identical style of the main building. The massive decoration surround to the door is identical in style to the main entrance and the frame for the ark, but without the lotus leaves. The sides of the front of the building are also framed by obelisks. Inside the building there is little evidence of the mikveh itself. There is a fireplace with brick obelisk surrounds but that is all. There is no evidence as to what sort of mikveh it was - there is no evidence of rain water from the roof being fed into the building for a rain fed mikveh the most common type in England.
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6. Canterbury Cathedral
The Cathedral still dominates the city of Canterbury, laying to the north east of the High Street, close to the area of the medieval Jewry. The Cathedral was the constant backdrop to the life of the Canterbury Jews. Also their life was entwined with the monks who were their clients and their landlords and we know that in the 12th century at least, there was a strong Judaic element in the ritual of the cathedral.Points of specific Jewish interest in the Cathedral are the Priors Chapel which was partly financed with Jewish loans in 1226. Other cathedrals in the medieval period (such as St Albans') used Jewish funds to help finance building projects.
The Priors Chapel survives in part - the sub-vault of the chapel is an extension of the vaulting of the Water Tower in the Infirmary Cloister. This can be approached through the Library passage running from the eastern side of the Great Cloister. The original chapel above was itself was replaced by the Howley Library built in brick after 1660.
In the Crypt close by there are preserved two striking and significant sculptures of the heads of two medieval Jews. They are in a glass case just to the left of the entry to the Treasury.
The sculptures depict two full bearded Jews in full face, complete with the identifying pointed hat that Jews were required to wear in the medieval period. The hats are neat with a decorative band and tassels spaced around the rim and are shown with what look like piped seams rising to and gathered into the peak at the top.
They were part of a larger decorative monumental piece that was recovered in 1964 from the west wall of the Great Cloister. They had been recycled as building material in the cloister wall.
It is thought that they were part of a screen in the Quire built under the direction of the master mason "William the Englishman" in c.1180 and destroyed in building work in c. 1300.
They were among several quatrefoils depicting heads - the other survivors, including heads of demons, are also on display in the case. The surmise is that they were part of a "Tree of Jesse" design and represented Old Testament figures.
To the contrary it looks as if the Jews' heads belong to a primarily decorative series of quatrefoils that include the heads of the demons. It could well be that the Jews were figures generally representing the Jews as a spiritual type - certainly one of the Jews has huge ears which probably the near mirror image of horns of the demons. The style of the Jews beards is also similar to those of the demons.
They are dissimilar to the "Christian" religious figures that also belonged to the screen which are smaller and more realistic in their detail and evidently referred to Old or New Testament figures. However this does not exclude them representing biblical figures, but this does not seem so likely.
It is interesting to speculate whether these figures were based on Jews in Canterbury. It is certainly the case that individual Jews (especially money lenders) were sometimes compared to the Devil or demons in medieval art, such as Aaron of Lincoln who was drawn as the "son of the Devil". But this can only be speculation.
One of these figures was displayed in the noted Romanesque Art Exhibition in 1984 at the Hayward Gallery and the catalogue came to similar conclusions as to the meaning of the art work.
As a final note a medieval visitor or pilgrim to the Cathedral in the 12th century, would have been impressed by a great seven-branched candle stick called a Pascall, as well as the regular ritual use of priestly vestments in imitation of the Aaronic priesthood, the gift of Prior Wilbert (1153 - 1167) and a previous gift of Ernulf of Canterbury, the latter who had given the cathedral a cope of with bells on the fringe as well as a blue tunicle powdered with golden birds. The vestments even included a version of the Aaronic ephod and breastplate. At the neighbouring St Augustine's Abbey, under Hugh de Loria (1091-1124) there was also a menorah.
The use of these items was the result of the fashion of imitating Jewish ritual items that came into the church in the 11th century. Canterbury itself came under a strong Judaising influence into the 12th century. The use of extravagantly ornate, seven-branched candelabra was not uncommon among the greater churches and abbeys who could afford them. Some of them were of impressive proportions - often the breadth of the Quire - and they may have been modeled on the menorah depicted on the Arch of Titus in Rome. They were usually used before and over the Easter period.
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7. The Site of Modechai and Henry Harts' Businesses - Kingsbridge and St Peters Street
On leaving the synagogue retrace your steps to the High street and walk towards the Westgate into St Peters Street past St Thomas Hospital and over Kingsbridge. On this street were shops belonging to Mordechai and Henry Hart in the 19th century. In 1852 Mordechai Hart's Pawnbrokers business was listed at 56 and 57 St Peter's Street. Today there is a Jewelers and a newsagents on the site. Henry Hart later opened a tailors at 20 High Street and a pawn brokers on Best lane and can be seen listed in 1867.Top
8. The Site of the Synagogue Of 1762 - Westgate and St Dunstan's Street
Carrying on down St Peter's Street and through the historic Westgate, the old suburb of West Canterbury is quickly reached. The site and remains of the first Permanent synagogue of modern times in Canterbury can easily be found at the right-hand side (north side) of the railway crossing across St Dunstan's Street to Canterbury West Station.According to Cole and Roper's map this building lay side on to the street and contemporary accounts say this building was reached by a narrow passage from the street. The evidence points to a building set back from the street. The synagogue itself was on the first floor being reached by a flight of steps. The basement was used a vestry room and for other purposes
The building was constructed in 1762 and taken down in 1847 being used by the community for some eighty-five years.
It is known that the interior furnishings of the synagogue included an Ark that had been used in the Old Hambro Synagogue in London and given to Canterbury. The foundation stone of the synagogue is preserved in the Jewish museum in London.
In sum the precise location of the synagogue site was thought to be an area nearly adjacent to the railway crossing, based on the site of the synagogue indicated on the Bayly's and Barlow maps of 1795 and 1800 respectively, and it was reported that stones from the foundation can still be seen from the crossing, undergrowth permitting.
However, in 2009 - 2010 redevelopment in the area at the site of Hallet's Garage, at 21-24 St Dunstan's Street (i.e within the junction of St Dunstan's with Station Road West), has led to a large scale excavation of various archaeological remains from the Roman period onwards and includes a site newly identified as the actual site of the 1762 synagogue and which will undergo full excavation in due course. This new site was indentified on the basis of the earlier Andrew's and Wren map of 1768, which differs in its location of the synagogue, compared to the two other maps just mentioned earlier, and it is claimed by the Canterbury Archaeology unit, that some of the synagogue walls may have still been extant as late as 1873. Evaluation trenches dug already in 2009 have revealed sub-surface remains of what are thought to be the north wall of the synagogue and possibly its western wall constructed in brick. This will be of importance as it may well be the only 18th Anglo-Jewish synagogue to have under-gone archaeological exploration, but further work to reconcile the two claimed historic locations of the synagogue may need to be completed, though the two claimed sites are very close together. The newly excavated site lies directly adjacent to the south end of the car-park for Canterbury West railway station.
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9. The Jewish Cemetery of 1760 - Whitstable Road
Carrying straight on from the level crossing, the old Jewish cemetery is close by, just short walk along St Dunstan's Street into the beginning of the Whitstable Road. However the cemetery is difficult to find, even if you know where it is, though since it has been restored in recent years and the detritus camouflaging the entrance has been removed, it is much easier to locate.To find the cemetery walk into the start of the Whitstable Road. When Forty Acres Road has been passed to the right the cemetery is very close by hidden behind the buildings and premises on the right hand. The entry to the cemetery is between the numbers 26 and 28 about 75 feet from the junction with Forty Acres Road.
The entry to the cemetery looks like the access to the rear of numbers 26 and 28, but the restored gate of the cemetery can now be seen clearly to the right a short way along the entry between the houses. When I first came to the cemetery and you stood in front of numbers 26 and 28, there is no sight of the cemetery itself, partly due to the camouflage of a wrecked car deposited in the entrance and a dilapidated garage. It was only when you walked confidently along the entry, that, the then, dilapidated gate to the cemetery, would suddenly appear to the right, the cemetery being a small enclosure or field behind the houses.
The restoration of the cemetery has included the restoration of the entrance gate, so that a key now needs to be obtained to effect access to the cemetery. When I first came to the cemetery it had quite a romantic aspect, but now that the obscuring undergrowth and trees have been removed some of this character has gone, though it of great credit that the cemetery is now cared for and offered greater protection from vandalism.
The cemetery is of considerable interest, not least because of its age and for the fact that it was the only Jewish burial ground in the eastern half of Kent until the second half of the last century. The site is some 43 by 22 yards with the gateway in the south-eastern corner. The original gates had completely fallen, prior to restoration, though they still stood in the 1970s. There are at least 150 headstones in the plot. The oldest legible inscription is from 1772 (located row H:1, if row A is the first row as the cemetery is entered, and counting from left to right). There was originally an ohel or burial house, whose existence is referred to on an inscription and also in a newspaper report. It was probably about or near the entry.
The cemetery was originally granted on a 99 year lease to Soloman Emmanuel on March 3, 1760. In 1807 a new lease was acquired and then in 1831 the cemetery was expanded when the congregation brought additional ground adjoining the cemetery from a Mr. Rogers. This additional ground was walled in at an expense of £40.
Two foundation plaques and inscriptions can be seen on the south wall. One reads that the wall and the land belong to the Canterbury Jewish community and its trustees. A second in Hebrew records the completion of work constructing the cemetery by Segilmann, Mottlieb and Ensleigh(?) in 1761. Another inscription used to be set in a masonry archway above the gate and read "This building was erected by H. Jordan Esq., as a tribute to the memory of Philip Beck Esq., who died in this city, September 19, 5614." Philip Beck (L:4) died at the age of 35 in 1854.
The existence of another inscription in the cemetery wall was noted in 1851 bearing the date 5521/1760.
The cemetery served not just Canterbury, but also Dover, Deal and Ramsgate. The tombstones are either in Hebrew or Hebrew and English. A look around the cemetery will show that a small number of families formed the backbone of the community and that there were various branches of these families, in neighbouring communities, who also used the cemetery.
There are also Jews recorded as being from Hastings, London, Norwich, Oxford, Plymouth, Portsea, St Leonards and Sandwich. There are some more exotic locations; Amsterdam (H:6) Copenhagen (H:1, I:4 - husband and wife) and Kalish (O:8). One of the community had the misfortune to die away from home in Calais.
It is notable that many of the inhabitants the Kent Jewry lived to a good age - two tombstones list 95 year old men. There is a remarkable record of Frances Nathan of Dover who lived to 104, dying in 1831, her husband Mordechai (nine years her junior) living to a mere 95 years and passing away in the same year. Another Nathan of Dover, Julia, died just short three months short of her centenary in 1886 (M:8). To put this in context it is estimated that in 1900 there were only some 200 centenarians in the whole country.
Of the notables, Hannah, the first wife of celebrated Rabbi and educator of his time, R.I.Cohen of Dover; her tomb is the flat tomb in the corner. Members of Alderman Hart's family are represented; his daughter Lizzie who died in 1872 aged seven (L:7), his son Israel aged seven in 1874 (M:13), and his first wife Rosa who died aged 35 leaving ten children in 1871 (M:12). Their memorials are touching and attractive - Rosa's is decorated a carved rose and Lizzies' with what seems to be a busy Lizzie.
The memorial to Zvi Hirsh (F:6) may well be that of Zevi Hirsch a "competent scholar of his time" who was at the Midrash Phineas academy in London in 1795. The London link is indicated by his son Davis (M:5) being indicated as being "...of London".
However the most notable burial is that of Nathaniel Isaacs (1808 - 1872) of Canterbury, the explorer and a founder of Natal and the nephew of famous Samuel Isaac of Northampton. His tombstone is located row P, the back wall of the cemetery near left of the tree.
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10. Canterbury Castle
To get to the Castle a good route to take is to walk along the High Street and its extension to just behind the bus station so as to walk up an access ramp on to the eastern circuit of the city walls. A ten or fifteen minute walk will take one to Canterbury East station via the local landmark of the Dame John mound. The castle keep and ruins (c. 1175) are best approached via a foot bridge from the station.The castle would have been an important and familiar landmark for the medieval Jews of Canterbury, as it was the usual point from which the local Jewish community was administered by the local Sherriff and the Chirographic Chest holding the records of Jewish financial transactions would often be kept at the castle. The Constable of the Royal castle would genarally be charged with protecting the local Jews on behalf of the king and quite frequently Jews would have a portion of the castle assigned to them where they would lodge in times of tension, while other parts of the castle would be used as a specific prison for Jews - for example the remains of the Jew's Tower at Hereford Castle was the historic prison for the local Jews. Jews would be protected or imprisoned in the Royal castle, as they were the chattels of the King alone and under his sole jurisdiction.
The Hebrew inscriptions in the Castle have an interesting history. Hebrew inscriptions in the towers or keeps of Royal castles have been found elsewhere, and it would seem that inscribing verses from the Psalms was a favoured subject of graffiti by Jews, whether sheltering, or captive, in Royal Castles.
Dr Plot makes the first documented mentioned of the Hebrew graffiti at Canterbury, as he stated that in his time, in c.1672, that many of the stones on the north east staircase of the castle keep were inscribed with "versicles" from the Psalms in Hebrew. He also specifically mentions the stones again in an account of his 'intended journey through England and Wales' in an MS in Oxford, which is reproduced in Thomas Hearn's edition of Leland's Itinerary in 1792. He states of his objectives
'I shall endeavour also to make a full Collection of British, Roman, Saxon, and ancient English Money, found very plentifully in many Parts of the Nation. So likewise of Urns, Lamps, Lachrymatories, such as are found at Newington in Kent, whereof I have some in my Possession. Here I shall place also all ancient Inscriptions found on ancient Monuments, and ruinous Buildings, such as the Hebrew on the Walls of the old Castle at Canterbury, which I guess to have been done by Jews.'
The Hebrew inscriptions may well have been incised during a time when the Jews took shelter in the castle, perhaps during the Barons' War, or when the community were confined by edict in the castle in 1278, or perhaps they could have been completed by individual Jewish prisoners, such as Abraham, who was thrown into jail on the charge of murder in 1225. The Hebrew 'verses' on the stairs were in fact one of two sets of Hebrew graffiti at the Castle as an article in 'Archaeologia' in 1782 (p. 301) notes that there were Hebrew verses on both the stairs mentioned previously and on the walls of the guard chamber. The article notes that they were seen in 1732 by Mr. Fremoult, '...after which time they were taken away'.
Further evidence for the survival of the inscription after 1732, is given in a remarkable correspondence between the first Jewish member of the Royal Society, Mendes Da Costa (a remarkable character in himself) and Edward Hasted, which is also revealing of prejudicial attitudes towards Jews in the 18th century.
Mendes Da Costa, wanted to visit the inscriptions in 1766, but he was reminded by Hasted in the following letters that his desire might be thwarted since the authorities, 'would make great exceptions for a Jew and a stranger to search for it'. The correspondence is as below (Nichols: 'Illustrations': 4: 645 (1822):
From Mr. DA COSTA.
"SIR, Royal Society, Oct. 24, 1766.
" I presume to trouble you with the following Query: In a MS. of Dr. Plot's, dated June 10, 1674, I find this notice: ' Antient Inscriptions on ruinous Buildings--such as the Hebrew exquisitely written on the old walls of the Castle of Canterbury.' Is there such a Hebrew Inscription now extant? If there is, can a copy be procured? or can I have permission to employ some Jew (of Canterbury) to copy it, and decypher it? And would you take it under your inspection and care to inform him where it is, and give him your advice in what manner to do it? and favour the Literati with an exact account of it.
"I do not doubt the patronage of our learned Friend Dr. Ducarel, joined with the Query being purely literary, will plead my pardon for this trouble given you. I am, with great esteem, Sir, your obliged humble servant, E, M. DA COSTA."
To Mr. DA COSTA. ", Sutton, near Dartford, Nov. 4, 1766.
"Sir, I received by the hands of my good Friend Dr. Ducarel, the favour of yours, which needs no kind of apology, as it ever gives me the greatest pleasure to contribute my small assistance to any literary Gentleman who thinks it worth his acceptance.
"The Hebrew Inscription you inquire after was written on the walls of one of the stone stair-cases in the old Castle at Canterbury, in the 13th century, by the Captive Jews, during their imprisonment there, and contained some few Versicles of the Psalms, and this Inscription was permanent not many years ago, as I have been told by some who have seen it. It is, I do suppose, no very difficult task to get admittance to this Inscription, by any Gentleman of the County, or one supported by proper recommendations; but, I think, they would make great objections to admit a Stranger and a Jew to search for it, especially as the direction of it rests with the Magistrates of the County in their public capacity. As one of them, as well as in my private station, I shall always be glad to do you every service in the procuring of it that I can; and, as I shall visit those parts of Kent, in all probability with these few months, I shall have an opportunity of getting a copy of it. In the mean time I shall have the pleasure sure of meeting you at our Society, and of consulting on the best means of obtaining it most to your satisfaction.
"I am, Sir, your most obedient servant, EDWARD HASTED."
It is evident that the inscription disappeared at some point after 1766. In the 19th century a local historian Brent looked for them but could not find them and the 'Archaeologia' Journal refers to them having been 'taken away' by the time of the article already referred to, of 1782, so we can identify the timing of their disappearance with some precision. Brent noted how the Castle had been destroyed year by year, by locals looking for building materials and that many of the near by houses were built of stones taken from the castle, "and some idea of the extent of this ancient fortress may be surmised by noting its present remains, and then surveying the small houses in the neighbourhood, the greater part of which have been constructed from its materials". It is faintly possible that one day some of this graffiti will emerge again in some building operation, though it is also possible that given the interest in the inscriptions that a gentleman or antiquarian could have had them removed and it is thereby possible that they remain unrecognized in a private or public collection somewhere.
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11. Anlaby Road - The Hull School of Art
The Hull School of Art was established in 1861 with the aim of teaching applied art and industrial design for the benefit of local manufacturers. The chairman of its founding committee was the silversmith and jeweller Bethel Jacobs, member of a cultured and influential family. He was honorary secretary of the Hull area committee which assembled a group of objects to be shown at the Great Exhibition of 1851, as well as organizing an associated local exhibition. It was largely due to his efforts that the prestigious annual meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Science was held in Hull during 1853 despite strong competition from Glasgow and Liverpool. Jacobs was also a member of the building committee for the Royal Institution in Albion Street - a major social and cultural centre which opened in 1853. The School of Art was affiliated to the Institution in 1875 and moved to its Anlaby Road site in 1905.Top
12. Anlaby Road - Emigrants' Waiting Room
In 1871 the North Eastern Railway Company built a waiting room for transmigrants on Anlaby Road, close to Hull Paragon Station. This helped to reduce a possible threat to the health of local inhabitants and offered a shelter where passengers could make contact with reputable ticket agents. The building was enlarged in 1881 to provide separate rooms and washing facilities for men and women. Trains with as many as seventeen carriages set off from a long platform at the back of the waiting room, many of them on their way to Liverpool via Leeds. The number of migrants using the waiting room began to fall in 1907 when a dockside rail terminus was built, and the decline continued after the First World War as immigration quotas were imposed by the United States. It closed in 1999 but was reopened in 2003 as a club for Hull City supporters.A plaque in Paragon Station commemorates the 2.2 million people who passed through the Emigration Platform, Hull on their way to America, Canada or South Africa. Among them were about half a million European Jews, hoping to find a better life elsewhere.
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13. Midland Street / Anlaby Road - Salvation Army Icehouse Citadel
This was registered as a place of worship in 1902, taking its name from an earlier mission hall, originally used for the storage of ice. In Hull, as elsewhere, the Salvation Army was vigorous in its efforts to convert the urban poor, including Jewish immigrants. Ironically, the Icehouse Citadel was leased to the Hull Old Hebrew Congregation for use during the High Festivals while they waited for their bombed synagogue to be rebuilt after the Second World War.Top
14. Osborne Street - Hull Old Hebrew Congregation Synagogue
This was built during 1902-3 in Osborne Street to the west of the Old Town. The rectangular red-brick building was reached through a pair of ornamental iron gates leading into a court beyond. There were 350 seats for men on the ground floor and a further 350 for women in the gallery. The building was renovated in 1913 and during 1931-32 it was substantially altered with an imposing doorway at the western end. The synagogue was badly damaged during successive air-raids during 1941 although the beth hamedrash (literally house of study) to the south remained usable. The bimah (raised platform) survived the blitz and was later acquired by the Singers Hill congregation in Birmingham. A new synagogue and social centre on the same site were completed in 1955. In 1989, when the Jewish population of Hull had fallen to about 1,100, the building was sold and later usedas a night club. In due course, Hull's two orthodox synagogues merged as the Hull Hebrew Congregation, and their new joint premises in Pryme Street, Anlaby were consecrated in 1995.
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15. Princes Quarry Shopping Center - Parade Row Synagogue
Following disagreements among the Posterngate membership in 1809, a group led by Joseph Lyon(pawnbroker and silversmith) withdrew to set up a new synagogue in Parade Row. The two groups were reunited in 1826 to form the Hull Hebrew Congregation, and the Parade Row site was later incorporated into the Junction Dock. It is now part of the Princes Quay Shopping Centre; walk through the centre to reach Osborne Street.Top
16. Posterngate Synagogue
Hull's first synagogue was founded in 1780 on the site of a small Roman Catholic chapel damaged by a mob at the time of the Gordon Riots. It was on the north side of Posterngate at the end of a narrow passage, nearly opposite the entrance to Dagger Lane. The Jewish community rented the chapel and restored it as a neat and convenient synagogue, attended by twenty to thirty people at the close of the eighteenth century.Top
17. Hull Hebrew Congregation Synagogue
This was established in 1826 at 7 Robinson Row, with access through a covered passageway leading from the street. During 1851-2 it was almost entirely rebuilt to accommodate the town's rapidly growing Jewish community. Seats were provided for 200 men on the ground floor and 80 women in the gallery. However, the escalating pace of immigration soon led to further overcrowdingand to growing tension between the newcomers and long-established members. By the end of the nineteenth century the Jewish population of Hull had risen to about 2,000 and in 1902 a number of anglicised families finally broke away to set up the Western Synagogue in Linnaeus Street. The remaining group now resolved to build a new synagogue in Osborne Street and to rename themselves the Hull Old Hebrew Congregation. The Robinson Row premises were later used as a piano factory and were demolished in 1928.
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18. Market Square
As late as the 1960s, a high proportion of traders in the Market Place were JewishTop
19. Posterngate - The Harry Lazarus Hotel
A heritage plaque records that 32-33 Posterngate was known as the Harry Lazarus Hotel during the 1870s and 1880s, when it was used to feed European transmigrants on their way to America and Canada. It was among manyemigrant lodging houses licensed by the Town Council but is the only one in Hull to have survived. The building is owned by Hull Trinity House and its interior is largely unchanged, with hotel numbers remaining on some of the
doors. Harry Lazarus himself was born about 1834 at Altona in Germany, and a man of this name was buried in the Jewish cemetery at Delhi Street in 1906.
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20. Trinity House Lane - Customs House
From 1793 until the Aliens Act of 1905 came into force, foreign immigrants including Jews were required to declare their name and other details to a Customs officer at their port of entry. During 1815 Hull's new Custom House was established in the former Neptune Inn, built by Trinity House during 1794-7. These premises, which still bear the name 'Custom House Buildings', were taken over by the Post Office in 1912.Top
21. Liberty Lane - First Jews
The first Jew discovered in Hull so far is Israel Benjamin who visited the town in 1734. Claiming to be a convert to Christianity, he presented himself at Holy Trinity church where he was given a charitable payment of five shillings. There is no evidence to show that he settled in Hull. The earliest known Jewish resident was Isaac Levy who occupied a property in Church Lane (close to the present Liberty Lane) from at least 1766.Top
22. Market Place
A gilt equestrian statue of William III by Peter Scheemakers stands close to the southern end of the Market Place, at the heart of the town's original Jewish quarter. In 1788 a great jubilee was organized in Hull to markthe centenary of King William's victory over the Catholic James II. The statue was decorated by a triumphal arch and, according to the historian George Hadley, the Jews of Hull testified their loyalty by providing an elegant
crown to be suspended over the king's head. It was presented to the Corporation by a local jeweller, Aaron Jacobs,on behalf of the Jewish community which then numbered six or seven families.
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23. The Queen of Richmond Green - 3 & 4 Maids of Honour Row
Richmond Green - 3 & 4 Maids of Honour Row, and the Queen of Richmond GreenThe south side of Richmond Green, where the stately Georgian terrace of Maids of Honour Row is situated, can be easily reached in 5-10 minutes of walking from the Railway station, being just off the main street (off The Quadrant and George Street via The Green, Brewers lane, or Golden Court).
Richmond Green itself was originally common land for rough grazing. However its gentrification came with the building of the palace in the 14th century and the use of the land for summer tournaments and pageants for the court. The fringes were gradually built on and in the early modern period it was enclosed and used for pleasurable recreation. By the 17th century cricket was played here. Most of the present houses on the green were built from the 1680s to 1725 and others were added up to the late 18th century.
Maids of Honour Row was built in 1724 to give accommodation for the maids of honour for the Princess of Wales, Caroline of Ansbach, whose husband was to become George II. She lived in the lodge at the Old Deer park.
However these earlier residents gave way to other occupants, at no. 3 a Jewish family called the Marks family, were in residence from 1763-79.
No. 4, was the residence of Margaret Levy, known as the The Queen of Richmond Green. She was famous for her wealth and as a center of local high society. She had been preceded by John James Hiedegger, the famous operatic manager and Master of the Revels to George II. He provided her house with its most distinctive decoration - a series of panels painted with views of Italy, Switzerland, and Germany.
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24. Site of the Home of Rachel Levy - Trumpeters' House and the Old Palace Yard
Just along from Maids of Honour Row is the surviving ancient gateway to the Old Palace from the green, leading directly to Trumpeters House.Trumpeters House (built in the 18th century) was home to the Austrian statesman Metternich. Benjamin D'Israeli visited him at his home and was impressed. He wrote in 1849, "I have been to see Metternich. He lives on Richmond Green, in the most charming old house in the world called the Old Palace...I am enchanted with Richmond Green...I should like to let my house and live there. It is still sweet and charming, alike in summer and winter."
Rachel the sister of Judith Levy, lived on the site between Trumpeters House and corner of Palace Lane. However the property was destroyed by bombing.
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25. Asgill House, the home of Benjamin Cohen - Cholmondley Walk
By crossing to the far corner of Old Palace Yard and cutting through to Old Palace Lane, and then walking down towards the river, Asgill House is on the junction of the lane and Cholmondley Walk, which is an attractive promenade on the river frontage.Benjamin Cohen was a notable inhabitant of Asgill House from 1838. The house stands on a small elevation and is an elegant and understated Tuscan villa near the banks of the Thames and still appears much as it did in Cohens' residency. He spent much money, reputedly some £2-3,000, on improvements to the house and the grounds. At the end of the 19th century its grounds were noted for its fine lawns, "...noble elms, the graceful acacia, and drooping willow." There was also a fine specimen of Turkish oak. These all doubtlessly stemmed from the improving flair and taste of Cohen. Sir Moses Montefiori presented his son-in-law with a grand marble fireplace from Milan, which still survives in the dining room. The Cohen coat of arms is still above the front door. The house itself was built around 1760 for Sir Charles Asgill, Lord Mayor of London and designed by Sir Robert Taylor.
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26. Heron Square - the Site of Heron Court
Modern day Heron Square contains the site and some of the surviving buildings of old Heron Court the focus of Jewish population in 18th century Richmond. It is just west of Bridge Street leading down to Richmond Bridge. Before the bridge was made it had been called Ferry Hill as it had been the site of the ferry across the Thames at Richmond. Heron Court itself was once called Herring Court, but the name was changed for reasons of social grace. Heron Court was approximatly co-extensive with the buildings of the old section of the Royal HotelMoses Hart lived in what was the first house to the left from Bridge Street and his house was one of three which formed Royal Terrace. This house is the first identifiable Jewish residence in Richmond, though of course Medina preceded Hart - it is quite probable he lived at Herring Court too. Hart lived there for a period of time up to 1716. This house was later incorporated into the Royal Hotel in 1786, which was made of Harts' house and the adjoining property. The facade of the Royal Hotel over-looking the river survives incorporated into the modern buildings of the mid-1980s, which are in a more sympathetic pastiche style. Hart's house would have been in the general vicinity of the 19th century campanile tower of Tower House close to the bridge.
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27. Heron House
Heron House occupies the south-west corner of Heron Square. It was described in 1908 as a "superior family residence" with no less than 22 principal rooms commanding fine views of the river, and with accommodation and facilities for several servants. This included a coach house with "married coachman's quarters", stabling for four horses and four carriages. All are indicative of the sorts of facilities and the upper-class life and privilege of its earlier Jewish residents. While the house did not have any known Jewish occupants it provides an idea of the type of grand housing and life-style that houses like Heron Court provided. Heron Court was nearly identical to Hotham House adjoining, which did have a Jewish history.Top
28. Isaac Fernandez Nunes - Hotham House
Hotham House lay directly next to and adjoining Heron House away from the bridge. Isaac Fernandez Nunes lived at Hotham House in the 1720s. He was treasurer and warden of Bevis Marks synagogue. In the 1750s the house was occupied by Henry Isaac the proprietor of the Hambro' Synagogue. The house was built in c.1720, in the Queen Anne style and named after Admiral Hotham. It was noted for its painted ceilings and for a remarkable 16th century Italian marble medallion set in its walls. It was demolished in 1960 in very dubious circumstances, the Borough Engineers who occupied it, apparently failed to spot it's imminent collapse. The building had probably been weakened by a bomb falling close by in the war.Top
29. Bridge House - Bridge Street
Bridge House lay on the other side of Bridge Street, across from Heron Court on what are now public gardens. Moses Medina (nephew of Solomon Medina and three times treasurer of Bevis Marks) lived at Bridge House from the 1720s to 1734, having lived previously at Moses Hart's old house. Abraham Levy lived there from 1737-1753. Levy was a wealthy merchant of Houndsditch. The building was an attractive Queen Anne residence, immediately adjoining the east-side of the Bridge Street. In its later days it became a high-class tea house where terraces of elegantly attired and be-hatted ladies could be seen sipping their tea. It was also a gentlemen's private hotel. In 1930 it was pulled down to make way for a small park with steps leading to the Richmond Landing Stage.Top
30. Ormond Street - Ormond House
At the top of Bridge Street and across the busy road junction of Hill Street and Hill Rise is Ormond Street. Ormond House lies on the right of Ormond Street the right hand side, at the end of the Georgian terrace before the Unitarian Chapel is reached. The house was also occupied by the well-known "rebel" Victorian painter, Prof. Frederick Brown. It is an early and very roomy Georgian residence with 17 main rooms including an artists' studio, as well as goodly facilities for servants. Once again this would have been a choice residence, including its own stabling, tradesman's entrance, basement kitchens.Joseph Tallis da Costa lived in Ormond House from c. 1726-1732.
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31. Moses da Paiba and The Hollies - Ormond Street
Moses da Paiba lived in the Hollies from 1718 into the majority of the 1720s. The Hollies stands on the left of the street (adjoined to The Rosary, originally part of the Hollies itself) walking away from the main street. It is very pretty indeed, the building is a grade II listed building, a rare example of William and Mary architecture dating from c.1696 and has fan-vaulted Elizabethan cellars from a previous property. The cellars are thought to have been used for bringing fish catches up from the Thames. There are also early frescoes in the building. This would have been a very pleasant and comfortable dwelling in its day. It is likely that da Paiba occupied both the Rosary and Hollies as one dwelling, as it was only shown divided by 1771. Other famous occupants include the Hoflands, Barbara the writer and her husband Thomas the artist in the early 19th century.Top
32. Hill Rise - no. 30/32 and Holbrooke House
Going back to Hill Rise and going up the hill, no. 30/32 is soon reached on the left of the street. Moses Mendez da Costa lived in no. 30/32 from the 1720s to 1734.Next door, Abraham Joseph de Cappidocia lived in Holbrooke house from 1734-41. He was a merchant as well as treasurer and warden of Bevis Marks. He won a lottery of £10,000 pounds in 1740 but had spent £12,000 pounds on tickets!
This was again a large and luxurious property built in c. 1770; in 1887 it is listed as having 18 bed and dressing rooms, lofty drawing rooms and dining rooms and three reception rooms as well as other functionary rooms - in total 38 rooms.
The house was later divided in the 19th century with aristocratic residents and was then used as a school. In the 20th century it was a bicycle manufactory and then a garage - latterly Holbrooke Motors. The building has been mercifully restored by the removal of the motor show-room that had been unkindly imposed on its frontage and it has been put back to its appearance in 1830.
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33. Site of Richmond Spa - Richmond Hill
Richmond Hill - the site of Richmond Wells at Terrace Gardens, and The TerraceContinuing walking up Richmond Hill, the site of the old spa is reached about half way up the hill on the right. The well site is contained in what is now the Terrace Gardens, opposite the junction with Friars Stile Road. The spa was the great attraction of Richmond in the 18th century and was a key attraction for the influx of rich and aristocratic Jews coming to participate in the social opportunities offered by the town.
By continuing walking along the terrace No. 4, The Terrace is reached along with a stunning view from the terrace over the Thames towards Windsor Castle.
No. 4, The Terrace is an elegant house whose raison d'etre has doubtlessly always been the view from the heights of the terrace from which it takes its name. It is still a place of great beauty which once inspired poets and artists. In fact Sir Joshua Reynolds lived across the road in Wick House. With this house it can be safely said that when an Abraham da Paiba took up the house from 1767-1775 he leased it for its prestige and for pre-eminently aesthetic reasons - a fact that may be of some social historical significance. Paiba was a Jew Broker and diamond merchant. Gompertz, a rich merchant, also lived at no.4 in 1780. The house is original though it is erroneously stated to have been burnt down with no.3.
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34. Spring Grove House (Site) - Sheen Road / Queen's Road
In 1762-67 a Levy, probably Moses Isaac Levy, who was to become the President of the Board of Deputies in 1789, lived at Spring Grove House, Marshgate. This was essentially an aristocratic stately home or seat, a semi-rural house with a small estate of 72 acres. While it was a family seat, it was in the manner of the time leased out from time to time to people of standing, like Levy.It was situated opposite Pest House Common (the Pest House being where epidemic victims were required to reside) and was originally called Bachelors Hall. Today Marshgate can be found at the junction of Queens' Road and Sheen Road, near the Black Horse Inn.
The property was originally built by the Marquis of Lothian in the early 18th Century. The status of the house is indicated by its notable residents and indeed their visitors. These included Sir Charles Price, Bart. Sir Charles's father, the first Baronet, brought the property in 1797 and received King George III as a guest there.
The house remained in the hands of the Rugge-Price family into this century, but the whole estate was re-developed between the wars. The name is still retained in the area.
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35. Mr. Neumegen's School for Jews - Richmond Road, Kew
Gloucester House, Richmond Road, Kew (now Gloucester Court) - Mr. Neumegen's School for JewsMr. and Mrs. Neumegen ran a private school for upper class Jews at former Gloucester House, from 1840 and their school ran as family concern for the larger part of a century. In their time they provided the preparatory education for many Jews who were to rise to fame and high positions.
A local correspondent, H.J. Butcher, wrote in 1939, what he recalled of the place - it turned out that his aunt had been History Mistress there until 1902.
"...In the early Victorian era it was kept as a very high class Jewish boarding school for Boys & Girls,...The scholars were in the main children of wealthy West Indian and Portuguese Jews, e.g. Philip Guedellas was a scholar there is his young days.
It was run by Mr. and Mrs. Neumegen, aristocratic Portuguese Jew,...Mr. Neumegen died many years before his wife, who continued to run the school for girls, and it prospered until the old lady died, when the daughter Ada gradually let it down, and the 1914-18 war killed it."
Butcher did not remember Mr. Neumegen, but he recalled "...a distinct remembrance of Mrs. Neumegen, who had a very grand way with her, and evidently came of a very good family."
Rare Victorian photographs of Mr. and Mrs. Neumegen survive, who appear a kindly older couple. One striking feature of their photographs is that they are smiling - an almost unique occurrence in photographs of the period!
The Neumegens also had three sons - one who lived in Portugal, the other two worked in the wine business in London and Richmond respectively.
The school in fact had a number of famous ex-pupils. Philip Guedalla (1889-1944), mentioned already, was a writer said to have been the most popular historian of his time. In earlier times Sir George Jessel (1824-83), (see Dover for more details) first Jewish Master of the Rolls, Lewis Solomon (1848-1928) the synagogue architect, was educated by the Neumegens. George Faudel Philips 1840-1922), later Lord Mayor of London was there too.
Apart from periodic reports of annual excursions and "treats" at the school in the Jewish press, one event that occurred at Neumegens' is of some note - in 1849 HRH the Duke of Cambridge visited the school. This must have been a great occasion for the Neumegens and the pupils.
As for Gloucester House it, "formerly stood in Richmond Road, Kew, about 200 yards past the junction with Mortlake road. Its site is now a block of flats known as Gloucester Court. It was a very rambling old Georgian House, which had a number of additions made to it, standing in its own grounds of 2 to 3 acres." Sanders dates the house to around 1750, and adds that it was so named because it was used as a country resort by the Duke of Gloucester the brother of George III.
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36. The Franks Home - Isleworth House, Isleworth
The Aaron Franks ancestral home - Isleworth House, IsleworthA very fascinating visit can be made across the river to the home of the Franks family at Isleworth. This survives in beautiful order in Old Isleworth and was at the orginal time of research an old peoples' home, Nazareth House, ran by the Sisters of Nazareth nursing order for upwards of a century.
The family acquired the house in 1748 when it was brought by Aaron Franks. The house effectively remained in the family until 1862, though from 1832 the connection was through Lady Isabella Cooper (nee Franks and of Teddington), who was the granddaughter of Bilah Franks, wife of Aaron Franks, and who had married out to Sir William Cooper.
The family in earlier days were reputed for their hospitality and musical ability. Sir Horace Walpole was a regular visitor to the house and appreciated the concerts put on by the family. He wrote, "This morning I was at a very fine concert at old Franks' at Isleworth, and heard Leoni, who pleased me more than anything I have heard these hundred years."
The house is hidden behind high brick walls (the walls built by Priscilla Franks in fact) off the Richmond Road and approached by a long drive way. Despite the apparent lack of open invitation for visitors, the nuns are very likely to gladly show a polite enquirer around the place who calls at a reasonable time at the front door of the main house. On the occasion I called, I was given tea and homemade biscuits in the parlour and given a detailed tour. The Reverend Mother was very interested in the Franks though they had little information about them.
The house has been kept in exceptional condition by the nuns. The main points of interest in the house are the entrance hall and stairs, and the main ground floor reception rooms. These retain considerable elegance and some grandeur. The entrance hall includes marble columns and ornate stair-rails. The stairs sweep from the center of the hall up to either side terminating in a landing into a grand double doorway.
The rooms are mostly very light and airy and those on the upper floors have a beautiful and gracious outlook. Also the grounds are large running down to a picturesque private frontage on a reach of the River Thames and it is worth doing a circuit of the grounds as the rear aspect of the house is the grandest and most attractive.
Architecturally the house is in an elegant villa style and its main aspect is deliberately towards the river. From the rear main aspect of the house the facade is distinguished by two large rounded bays carried up the full height of the house with decorative details across the top of the first floor windows in the classical style as well as decorative baulestrading on the first floor and on the roof line. There is a decorative campanile on the corner of the house and from there a low service wing stretches some distance.
The layout and contemporary engravings show that the family normally arrived at the house by river rather than road and that those who were to admire the house were also river travellers. There was once a prominent path sweeping up to central door of the river-side of the house.
The rear frontage of the house uses the same decorative motifs as the front with the exception of the bays and the campanile, though it does have a main entrance porch projecting from the front.
The one storied service wing behind is in a clean Georgian style and includes an attractive courtyard with stabling and a small clock tower above the carriage house.
It seems that Sir William and Lady Cooper made alterations to the house and grounds. After her husband's death Isabella carried on improving the estate. Interestingly she was visited by King William IV, who greatly admired the view from the house. Apparently he instructed that the Syon Vista in Kew Gardens should be cut to open a view of the pagoda and observatory to the front of the house.
The nuns have made additions to the house and grounds. A very large and attractive red brick chapel has been attached to the house, though it is out of key with the main building. Its size reflects the days when the large annexes in the grounds were used as a large children's home. The nuns also have a neat cemetery for the sisters of their order against the boundary wall near the road. There is also an imitation of the grotto at Lourdes in one corner of the grounds for the spiritual comfort of the old people who are now the only residents of the home. There is little doubt that the nuns provide exceptional and valuable care and love for the old people with them.
If there is not time or opportunity to visit the house itself access to the back corner of the grounds can be gained from a gated section of the tow path just to the north. By going through the gates (which give the impression of private property even though there is a right of way) and walking to the boundary of the house a small bank can be climbed which gives a good vista of the house - as good in some respects as can be gained from inside the grounds themselves.
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37. Naphtali Franks house, Barnes Terrace - Barnes
Naphtali Franks was a warden of the Great Synagogue and a leading business man. He came to live in Barnes as it was an exclusive river side location, described gushingly in its day as, "a small watering place known to and visited by the elite only of London society." The row was also habituated with a small colony of French Émigres. His house has been identified as one of five spacious Georgian houses in Barnes Terrace near Barnes railway bridge - houses that had uninterrupted views of the river and excellent yatching and rowing in the summer months. These houses date from the general era of the 1770s and were even painted by Turner in 1826. They are also infamous for the murder of Compte D'Antraigues' during the French Revolution.Top
38. The Franks' Burial Place - Parish Church Yard, Mortlake
The burial place of Charlotte, Rebecca and Abigail Franks - Mortlake Parish Church Yard, MortlakeNaphtali Franks children, Abigail and Charlotte all assimilated and converted. They are all buried at Mortlake churchyard, along with their cousin Rebecca. Abigail having left money in her will to convert Jews! Their burial site and memorial still survive, just to the right (i.e. east) of the South door of the parish church, next to the Partridge chest-tomb (he, coincidentally, was noted as an astrologer and almanac maker and his tomb is the oldest memorial in the church yard).
This consists of an upright memorial to Charlotte (died, 1793?, aged 84) and Rebecca (died, 1803, aged 75 and had been married to Sir Henry Johnson, Bt.). The memorial has an interesting feature of, in that Charlottes name is repeated twice by the mason as he could not fit the final "s" of her name on the first line and thus had to repeat it in full on the line below!
Abigail was buried, by special request in her will (dated 28 December, 1814), close to her "aunts" in a specially made vault, that was apparently an enlargement of her close female relations existing grave site; an alteration that required special permission from the vestry. It must be stated that there are apparent confusions in the Franks pedigree, perhaps they were confused about it themselves? Rebecca was, according to Malcolm Brown's genealogy, more probably the cousin of Abigail than an aunt and Charlotte is listed as the sister of Abigail in the family tree produced by Rachel Daiches-Dubens. Genealogists be warned!
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39. Benjamin Goldsmid's House - Roehampton
Remains of Goldsmid's House are still to be found at Roehampton of Roehampton Lane. Goldsmid came to Roehampton in 1798 and lived in an aristocratic residence and surrounds. These included an estate of 150 acres. Since Roehampton Lane cut across it and he could not get it diverted, he had a tunnel built under the lane to allow uninterrupted access to the estate. The estate also included an artificial lake, and small farm. Goldsmid also produced food for the Chief Rabbi as he grew the corn to make the Chief Rabbi's Passover Matzah!After Goldsmids' death in 1808, his widow converted along with her children (though Lionel married Eliza Campbell, daughter of David Franks) and the house was sold in 1810.
The remains of the house and estate belong to the Convent of the Sacred Heart now also part of Digby-Stuart College at Roehampton Institute of Education. The remains of the house are the back wall of the old house - the rest was destroyed by bombing in the last war. The tunnel constructed by Goldsmid can still be found just a few yards up from the main entrance and is under the pelican crossing on the main road. It is in the form of a rustic grotto and leads under the road to the local primary school and is still used by the school to conduct the children across the road. There are a few landscape features, such as the ornamental lakes, surviving in the grounds that may date back to Goldsmid's time.
It may be added that Alexander Lindo, another Sephardic Jew, built himself a house on the corner of Goldsmid's estate called "Putney Spot".
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40. Jew's Row and Jew's House - Wandsworth
On the north side of Wandsworth Station, and just west off the end of Wandsworth Bridge and Bridgeend Road, is 'Jew's Row', one of several 'Jew's Row's' in London. These appear to be largely 18th century in origin and probably relate (unsurprisingly) to Jewish inhabitants of the period, when the presence of a local Jew in an otherwise Christian area might have been deemed noteworthy.North west of the junction of Jew's Row with York Road, stood the 'Jew's House' occupied by Jacob and Rachel Da Costa in the 18th century. They purchased it in 1729, they died in 1760. Their presence was probably cause of the appellation 'Jew's Row'. The house, later called 'Bridgefield House', was once property of Sarah Duchess of Marlborough and was said to have been designed by Sir Cristopher Wren and was demolished in c. 1865.
A local person also mentioned that post-war there may have been a Jewish reclamation business on river side.
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41. The Synagogue - St James Square
St James Square is off St Georges Place and Clarence Street, west from the Art Gallery and Museum on Clarence Street.The new synagogue was designed by William Hill Knight and the first stone laid on the site in 1837 and the consecration was on 14 May 1839.
The Cheltenham Free Press recorded the opening of the building and described it as follows starting with the ark, "...the body of which is imitation jasper, and the pediment is supported by elegant corinthian columns, the capitals and bases which together with the vases above the pediment are chastely gilded, and the doors are hid by a rich Indian curtain; the reading desk is painted in imitation of bird's eye maple. The synagogue is furnished with two brass chandeliers, eight large candle sticks, besides small sconces, which are filed with wax candles. Besides this there are two frames upon the wall, one containing a prayer in English for Her Majesty Queen Victoria, and the other in Hebrew repeated on the days (sic) of Atonement. The dome is one of the principal ornaments of the place and is finished in superior manner with cornice and fretwork."
The synagogue was laid out in conventional style - there is a central bimah and a ladies gallery at the rear of the shule. Some of the furnishings from the Manchester Walk synagogue were reused. However the synagogue was very fortunate in securing the old furnishings from the New Synagogue in Leadenhall Street, London, when it was dismantled in 1838. While the fittings may have been free the carting of the furniture from London cost the formidable sum of £86!
The overall effect of the interior is very handsome and the dominant light and muted colours, of the old bare-oak fittings, creates a distinctive atmosphere. The seats and benches are simple but dignified. Some still retain what may be the original woven rattan backing. The ark is the centre piece of the synagogue. It is a classical piece with painted Corinthian columns at either side, and three decorative urns on the top. There are attractive stained glass windows - probably of a more modern origin - with the menorah and Star of David,
In the 1860s the congregation installed gas lighting (as well as new heating) some of the pipes for which can still be seen incorporated into the structure of the bimah - the pipes are actually part of the original design of the reading desk and gas mantles can still be seen on the bimah. This almost certainly gives the date of the bimah as well as the railings around the ark which are identical.
There is some fine plaster work, especially the ceiling roses for the former chandeliers. The dome is striking and ornate with a central light or cupola. This use of a dome with a glass light or cupola is a copy of distinctive local architectural device to be seen in a number of older properties in Cheltenham.
The prayer boards, with the prayer to the Royal family and a penitential prayer for Yom Kippur, caused a stir in 1997 when it was discover that they were the oldest in the country and not merely Victorian pieces. When the boards were restored in 1997, the prayer for the monarch was discovered to have the names of each monarch painted onto a piece of canvas and then stuck over the name of each royal predecessor. Underneath was the name of George II who was crowned in 1727. The board had been also made by a company, Cole and King of London, who had gone out of business in 1730. It is thought that the board was originally made for the Great Synagogue but that they were taken by succeeding members of the synagogue who formed the New Synagogue of Leadenhall Street in 1761. The boards are then thought to arrived in Cheltenham with all the other redundant fixtures of the New, when it itself moved to a new building in Bishopsgate
One feature of the building not generally known was that underneath it had a low brick-vaulted cellar used to circulate hot air from the heating system. This has more recently had to be filled in with concrete to help preserve the fabric of the building. Another less well known feature of the synagogue equipment was a privy - an item not always mentioned in surveys of buildings at the time. No doubt the 18th century Christian practice of using chamber pots in the pews during services was not an acceptable solution!
The synagogue had to under go series of extensive repairs and improvements in the 1850s and 60s which proved a drain on community finances. It appears that some of the original brick work and joinery had been very defective - the repairs even including completely re-slating the roof, when a good slate roof should last a century before replacement. During this time a new floor was added with the under floor heating as well as the gas-lighting; significant advances in the amenities of the building.
The exterior of the building is in a simple and elegant Classical style, similar to dissenting chapels of the period. The front has a simple classical pediment supported by four columns, two either side of the central main door (which is itself flanked by two columns and a simple pediment forming its frame) and a single upper story window. The whole is stuccoed and painted. While the synagogue is brick built this is not seen as all the walls are surfaced and rendered.
The synagogue is situated off the main street and next to an old fire station.
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42. The Cemetery - Elm Street
The cemetery is situated in what was the poorest area of the townon the junction of Elm Street and Malvern Street, which is between the main Tewkesbury and Swindon Roads leading north-west out of town. The Tewkesbury Road is a continuation of the High Street.
The cemetery was established between 1824-6 the earliest legible tombstone (to Sarah Rees) dates from 1836.
The cemetery has a small, plain, red-brick ohel (burial hall), which is approximately square in shape, which forms the entrance to the cemetery, though there is also a small wicket gate from the adjoining caretaker's house.
The oldest part of the cemetery is the top half running from the side with the ohel and caretaker's house. The oldest tombstones clearly face in two double rows into what was the central path running through the centre of the cemetery. As in other cemeteries this relict boundary also seems to be indicated by a tree. The cemetery like many others was enlarged in stages by the acquisition of small pieces of additional ground in 1844, 1860 and 1892-4.
Unusually the cemetery was not entirely walled in until a late date - some of the cemetery was open to the street or only railed as late as 1872.
The strip of the cemetery directly adjoining the ohel on the Elm lane side, was until more recent times the site of two slum-type of 'one up one down' cottage dwellings, originally called Worcester Cottages and latterly named Jews' Cottages, once they had been acquired by the congregation. These were brought in 1844 by the congregation as part of their cemetery extension, and also provided rents, but were removed in the 1950s to allow an extension of the cemetery.
The tombstones are well generally preserved, the earliest dating from the 1840s. Some of the oldest are in Hebrew only, but most are bilingual. Most of the tombstones are of a high quality but generally simple and unadorned. There are a few horizontal tombstones for Sephardi members of the congregation, including Solomon da Silva and Moses Quixano Henriques.
The cemetery contains the remains of Jews from a wide area around Cheltenham, for example, from Gloucester, Stroud, Hereford, Ross on Wye and Wales.
One interesting feature of the cemetery are the remains of several stone supports in the walls which once held stone plaques, or boards of some kind. Some three of the wall mounted stones still remains in place, two others are now leant against foot of the wall.
The tombstones of a number of the tradesmen noted in the business and residential addresses can also be readily identified - for example the headstone of Elias Meyers, a pawnbroker and silversmith, who died in 1870, can be seen. Also the tombstone of Elias (Lewis), Asher Dight (d. 1852), a local publisher and stationer of 170 High Street, can be seen. Dight also published the laws of the congregation in 1840.
One rather tragic tombstone is to Walter Emanuel Levason, aged 9, of Hereford, who drowned in River Wye in 1852. The same tombstone records the premature deaths of two other sons of Joseph and Rebecca Levason. Not surprisingly the tombstone is concluded with the Biblical quotation, "The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away..." Elsewhere there is evidence of child mortality and the perils of child-bed - the tombstone of Sarah Bella wife of Benjamin Isaacs recalls that she died in child birth aged 35 years.
There is one "absentee" tombstone memorializing Hannah Meyer, born in Great Yarmouth, but buried in the Willesden cemetery.
The cemetery remains in use and there is still some space left and it is very well kept.
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43. Site of the First Synagogue - Shaftesbury Hall Car Park
The site of the original synagogue is on what is today the Shaftesbury Hall car park, situated close by the junction of Clarence Street (then Manchester Walk) and St Georges Place, not far off the Royal Crecent.The synagogue was set-up in a rented apartment room rented from a publican's widow, at eight pounds a year. The room was provided with all the usual furnishings of a synagogue including a prayer board with the prayer for the Royal family. This prayer board is preserved and kept in the London Jewish Museum. The synagogue was in Manchester Place by 1826 and used until as late as 1839 when the new synagogue opened.
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44. Site of Corinth House - Cheltenham College, Bath Road
Corinth House, was a Jewish house within Cheltenham College, similar in conception to Polack House at Clifton College in Bristol. Here some 40 Jewish boys could observe the Sabbath and attend the synagogue, as well as conduct the work of Saturday school, on Sunday. The house was presided over by Nestor Schnurmann. It was situated in Bath Road "opposite the present Clock Tower entrance to college."Top
45. Site of the Montpellier Baths, Bath Road - the 19th Century Mikveh
From before 1846 the community used the local Montpellier Baths as the communal mikveh (Jewish ritual bath). The Montpellier Baths also produced the famous Cheltenham Salts. These baths were quite luxurious and were fed by good springs. In 1846 it was noted that they had been altered which reduced their suitability for use as a mikveh and there was talk of finding and alternative, but nothing further is known about this. In 1878 there were serious discussions about building a purpose built mikveh on a house next to a local infants' school site opposite the synagogue itself. Once again it is not known what came about from these proposals.Top
46. Sir Francis Goldsmidt - The Rendcomb Estate, Rendcombe
Sir Francis Goldsmidt, who was the first Jewish baronet and one of the main benefactors of University College London, was also one of the main benefactors of the Jewish community. He had a house and estate out of town at Rendcombe on the Road to Cirencester (A 435). He brought the estate in 1863 and rebuilt the 17th century Manor House and made a new drive down to the Cirencester Road. Brian Torode states that one of the two bridges that he built has his monogram on it. This is the bridge over the village Road.Top
47. Touring Jewish Sheerness and Blue Town
Sheerness is of genuine interest to the Jewish visitor. The Isle of Sheppey still wears a distinctive and remote aspect that is attractive if sometimes bleak. One could typify the landscape as being of sheep, ships, marshland and open countryside. The superficial unlikelihood of a Jewish community here in the past is very much part of its interest.Also, most importantly the principal Jewish quarter of the western side of Blue Town still survives surprisingly intact. Here more perhaps than any other place in the country, it is possible to get a feel of what it was like to be a Jew in a small port town last century. Blue Town has been preserved by its deprivation and while it has been "environmentally improved" and partly redeveloped in recent years, it has a gritty and potent atmosphere, similar in some ways to parts of the old East End around Brick Lane that has escaped the worst of redevelopment and maintain their industrial actuality.
With its dominating Dock Wall along the High Street and prominent old Court House and dock buildings, old pubs and hotels, remnants of Georgian housing with timber fronting and brick Victorian housing in varying states of renovation or continuing dilapidation, this is not a conventional venue for visitor, but it is all the better for it.
The surviving area of Blue Town is quite small and compact and it can be wandered around without following a specific route as all the main landmarks will be passed by a wander of an hour or less. However a more methodical route would be to walk westwards along the High Street along the dock walls up to the Old Court House and then to walk through a minor maze of the lanes and passages around West Lane and behind the "Lord Nelson Inn" and the "Jolly Sailor". This latter area as well as the High Street, is where most of the Sheerness Jews lived and is the best preserved part of Blue Town.
Mile Town itself is well worth seeing if only to see the Hope Street cemetery, which is remarkable for it diminutive size and concealment in such as central location Also Russell Street, named after Samuel Russell is worth reflecting on.
48. Blue Town (Sheerness)
The origins of Blue Town lies in the collection of timber cabins built by dockyard workmen in the open area around the docks and stores. The name Blue Town derives from their use of blue-grey Naval paint to paint their crude houses.The dry docks at Sheerness date back to 1708. The first "Blue Houses" had appeared by 1754. By 1792 there were 130 of the painted cottages or cabins. Additionally old naval hulks were used as accommodation for the workers.
In 1802 many of the workers were forced to leave the Blue Houses in order to move to the barracks and the term Blue Town became the general term for the place rather than Blue Houses.
A serious fire in the yard in the 1820s removed the rest of the old workers houses. The high dock yard wall along the High Street was also completed by 1827 along with other installations.
While much of the early housing was renewed in the 19th century Blue Town would have remained a cramped uncomfortable place to live. The street plan from the early days was apparently not rationalized or improved, with much of the poorer housing being around cramped alleys, lanes and courts, the courts being a sign of slum type housing. The Victorian maps show that many of the blocks of housing had rows or block of outside latrines in shared yards with a shared single tap as a water supply.
These features, combined with several slaughter houses, and stables would have made the area if not insanitary then smelly. Added to this, the pubs, numerous skittle alleys, smithies all in the small area would have made it a noisy quarter as well.
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49. The Site of the Synagogue - Kent Street
Today the area of Blue Town has been reduced by modern development and the site of the synagogue lies on the very south side of the triangular block that makes up Blue Town. The site is just north of the modern Brielle Way - the main road - which has carved into Blue Town, just north-west of the junction of Brielle Way with Kent Street in a car park (the precise location for those with GPS is 51°26'28.80"N 0°45'5.92"E ).In 1856 the synagogue was described in detail in the "Archaeological Mine". It relates that it was built in wood at the cost of thirteen hundred pounds. "...It is stated to have been constructed after the model of a synagogue in London, but the style of architecture is of no peculiar order, like all structures built during the Georgian era-the dark ages of architectural design-it may be described as of debased gothic-amalgamated with the Grecian.
The structure is oblong-east and west. The entrance is at the west-end. A gallery for women, on the north side of the entrance. Above the door is a three-light window, with gothic crockets and finial, on each side is also a lancet-headed window, surmounted with a circular window with stained glass.
At the eastern end, as usual, is the Ark, in which are three scrolls of the "The Law," parchment. The Ark is severed from the main body of the building by a curtain, it is almost entirely of Grecian design; above it is a portion of the ten commandments.
On the south wall is the following prayer in Roman character..." [recites the prayer for the Royal family, in this case Queen Victoria]
The synagogue was evidently a simple structure, its most unusual feature, from this description, being its small women's gallery over the north side of the door.
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50. King Street
Birth place of Mrs Frances Jacobs - King StreetMrs Jacobs, the niece of Henry Russell was born in Blue Town, during 1817 "in a wood built cottage in King Street, Blue Town, which was destroyed some years ago in "Monk's fire", which cleared the corner of King Street and Union Street. Mr Monk was a grocer on the corner of Union Street. The site of the cottage in which Mrs. Jacobs first saw the light of day is now occupied by No.3, King Street."
The 1841 census also records that Frances Levy aged 67, born in the county, lived in the street.
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51. Druids Arms, High Street
A Russell residence - the Druids Arms, High StreetThe Druids Arms was sited close to the eastern end on the High Street, north of the midway point on East lane. This had been the site of three cottages and the birth place of a Henry Russell - not the song-writer but a relative.
Mrs Jacobs' husband, Samuel Russell a clothier, "was born in a house opposite No. 56 High Street, Blue Town, on the site of the present Dockyard wall". A brown stone in the wall in the past denoted the site of the doorway of this house.
In 1841, Isaac and Katherine Jacobs, slopsellers, and three of their children (aged between 7-28 years) resided in the street. With them were two other children, Elijah Levy (13) and Morris Philips (7).
Of interest is Nore Levey, a hawker (35). The name "Nore" is unusual, it might be explained by the fact that "The Nore" was a both the name of a local sandbank and a naval command - thus it could be an original English forename used by this Jewish resident for its patriotic and local associations.
Abraham and Rachel Abrahams (66 and 53 respectively), a silversmith, lived on this street with their six children.
In the 1810s Benjamin foreman, Navy Agent, Tailor and Draper is listed on the street.
Sam Jacobs, one of the Jacobs' clan, was born one of a family of 17, born in a single cottage on what is now the site of the Dockyard wall, directly opposite Taylor's Alley.
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52. West Street
West Street is an extension of the High Street. An 18 year-old, Betsey Featherstone, was recorded on this street. She was probably Jewish as Featherstone is a Kent Jewish surname, probably an Anglicization of Finkelstein.A Henry Jacobs (born 1822), son of Isaac Jacobs, lived in 19 West Street, until his death in 1883.
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53. West Lane
Mrs F. Jacobs spent her married life in West Lane, where her husband died. Afterwards she moved to 11 West Street where she ran a fruiter's. An attractive feature of the street is its surviving cobbles and its pubs - survivors of the numerous pubs and hotels of the 19th century dock area. West Passage cutting across the lane wears a distinct air of dereliction, but the narrow alley with it clutter of buildings including its wooden faced Georgian buildings convey a good impression of how the Jewish quarter would have been like in the nineteenth century.Top
54. Fountains Hotel and Passage
Fountains Passage probably ran behind the Fountains Hotel and remnants of this presumed passage still survive at its either end.In 1841, Nathan Jacobs (aged 35) lived in the passage, as did Harry Levy (19) a slop seller and also a Lyon(?) Levy also a slop seller. The passage remains to be located but was probably in the vicinity.
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55. Kingshead Alley
A Mary Samson (20) was recorded in the 1841 census and was possibly Jewish.Top
56. Union Street
In 1841 the census states that Isaac Levy, aged 50, a watchmaker born in Sheerness, lived in the street with his wife and family of six children.Along the length of Union Street is a most unusual and unlikely war memorial from the First World War. An old brick built workshop has a course of blocks of stone, individually inscribed to the memory of the fallen under the window level. Included is the following to a member of the Jacobs family.
TO THE GLORY OF GOD
THIS STONE WAS LAID
IN MEMORY OF
ALBERT JACOBS
BY HIS MOTHER
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57. Chapel Street
In the 1820s the Navy Agents Levy Alexander and Samuel Abrahams (the latter one of the founders of the synagogue) lived here, though it has been noted that there were three Chapels Streets at various times in Sheerness, but this was most probably the one running across the centre of Blue Town.Top
58. Charles Street
Off the western end of Charles Street is the site of Blue Town Elementary School (1876-7). The foundation plaque of the school has been preserved on a corner of a car park set prominently upright in granite sets. The plaque records the founding members of the school board and included is Henry Jacobs, one of the Jacobs' clan.Top
59. High Street - the Birth Place of Henry Russell
Mile Town is a short distance along Brielle Way and Bridge Street from Blue Town. Henry Russell is said to have been born in the High Street, opposite Russell Street. Henry Russell also kept a furniture-broker's shop opposite Russell Street, in what was probably the same property. Russell Street is at the western end of High Street; the Blue Town end of the street. The street is stated to have been named after him, it having previously been Chapel Street one of three in Sheerness. However it may in reality have been named after Samuel Russell who actually lived in the street and was named in his honour after a tragic and fatal accident aboard a naval Ship.Top
60. The Jewish cemetery - Hope Street
The Jewish cemetery - Hope Street, the rear of 61 High Street (Mile Town)Hope Street runs parallel to Russell Street and comes directly off the High Street. The cemetery is doubtlessly one of Mile Town's best kept secrets, even though it is just yards from the main street of the town. Unless you know about it and where to look you would almost certainly never stumble across it.
To find it, look down Hope Street from its junction with High Street. It is on the left about 30 yards down in the gap between the second and third buildings on the street. It is fronted by a seven foot high, anonymous concrete rendered wall, with a small decrepit wooden door on the left. The ground is 60 x 25 feet.
It appears that the key for the cemetery might not be held locally - it used to be in a nearby shop. I was given a view of the cemetery through the rear window of a shops W.C. which looks onto the ground!
The tombstones, all uprights, rest against the far wall in varying states of decay. When I visited only one tombstone was visible in the sea of brambles. A blocked in window in the south perimeter wall may be evidence for a small former ohel (burial hall) for the cemetery.
Professor De Lange's survey of the cemetery confirms that the earliest burial was that of Hannah Moses in 1804, she died at 15 year old. There are eleven tombstones in the cemetery of modest style inscribed in Hebrew.
The memorials, where surnames are given, are to the Moses, Jacobs, Levy and probably the Abrahams family. Mrs Jacobs was also buried in this cemetery in 1904, even though it had been officially out of use since 1855.
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61. New Road
New RoadNew Road runs south west, a direct extension of Hope Street. Samuel Solomon, Navy Agent, was here in the 1810s as well as having a residence in High Street Chatham.
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62. Russell Street - Named after a Sheerness Jew
A street Named after a Sheerness Jew - Russell StreetRussell Street was originally known as Sun Street but the name was changed to Russell Street out of respect to the Russell family when Samuel Russell (husband of Yitta Russell) was killed on board the HMS Colossus on June 10th, 1859, when he fell from the main deck into the spirit room, striking his head on a cask. Samuel Russell was the father of Mrs Jacobs, who was their eldest child.
Samuel Russell also named a street in Sheerness. He was the first to give the name "Crimea" to present day Marine Town as building operations were going on their during the time of the Russian War. This name later fell out of use.
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63. The Second Jewish Cemetery
The New Cemetery - The Isle of Sheppey Cemetery, Halfway Road, QueenboroughThe new cemetery was first used in 1859 and is a separate hedged section visible from the road at the Sheerness end of the cemetery. It was originally ran by a private company, the Isle of Sheppey cemetery Company to 1945, then the District Council.
Professor De Lange has recorded eleven stones in the new section. The majority are for the Jacobs family and some three for the Levy's. The latest he records is in 1899 for Esther Jacobs. The tombstones all imitate the general local styles seen elsewhere in the cemetery.
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64. Brighton Station and Viaduct
Brighton Station and Viaduct was designed by the Jewish architect, David Mocatta (1806-1882). He was the most influential of the railway architects, he was noted for Italianate style of railway buildings, that came to be a traditional railway style and for examples of standardized planning for railway stations of repetitious designs.Top
65. Sassoon Mausaleum -- Bombay Bar and Function Room
Sassoon Mausaleum -- Bombay Bar and Function Room, junction of St. George's Road and Paston Place, Kemp Town.One of the most unexpected of all Jewish monuments in this country is the Sassoon family mausoleum. What marks it out is its location on the street in a residential area -- it is not part of a cemetery or set away from habitation, it is in the center of its local scene in Kemp Town. Further its oriental Indian style gives it an altogether exotic air, more curry house than sepulchre.
It was built by Sir Albert Sassoon in 1892 in a style evocative of the Royal Pavilion, while evoking the Bombay origins of the family.
Both Sir Albert and his son Edward were buried there, but their rest was interrupted in 1933, when his grandson Sir Philip Sassoon sold it in 1933 and the remains of his family were transferred to London. In the Second World War it became an air-raid shelter. After the war it was bought by the adjacent Hanbury Arms in 1953. They turned it into a function room
When I visited it much of the interior had been obscured and a false ceiling had been interposed beneath the dome and it most distinctive features were best visible from the street. From the street it is a single-storey block of a building, on a corner plot. There are no windows intruded into the walls of the structure, though some oriental-headed niches relieve the plainness of the walls. It major decorative flourish are moghul style crenellations at the roof line, set on top of a braided molding, similar to those used at the Royal Pavilion. The leaden concave dome is elegant, with a decorative finial very similar again to those at the Royal Pavilion.
There are currently plans to use funds from the Heritage Economic Regeneration Scheme to restore the burial chamber, by removing the false ceiling to reveal the dome and to reveal the dome with its decorative glazing and a painted ceiling. The other interior decorations would be restored by a conservator as well. The intention would be to attract tourists and to make it an attractive entertainment venue.
66. The former synagogue - no. 31- 32 Lansdowne Road
The former synagogue survives in good condition though much adapted for commercial and domestic use. It was divided into two homes and at the time of writing was an Osteopathic practice and a home. It is located on the flanks of a steep little valley and is partly built into the hill side.It has a stucco, plainly decorated frontage, with two doors at each side, its most attractive aspect. There is also a side entrance with steps down to the lower level. The doors lead into service passages which project out from the sides of the building. There is evidence that the entrance to no. 31 on the left hand side of the front may be the original entry as the entry to no. 32 is built out of level with the rest of the facade and the brick-work is apparently in a different bond to the rest. In recent years the original sashes in the four windows of the front have been replaced with modern units.
The former synagogue should also be viewed from the road that over looks its rear on the other side of the small valley. This part is terraced into the hill-side and it can be seen that the majority of the building is red-brick with a slate roof. The rear wall originally had six windows the upper two windows were round-headed. The expanses of red-brick wall were once relieved by use of alternate header and stretcher courses of different coloured bricks. The fact that it was never originally a domestic dwelling is suggested by the fact that the side walls have too few windows for a normal dwelling and some windows have been bricked in.
The building was designed by the architect J.P. Lofthouse and was partly based on Cheltenham synagogue, thought the exterior resemblance is only casual in its most basic profile. The Harper Bros. carried out the building work, having not long before completed the now defunct but still surviving, Unitarian chapel, across the road. Like so many synagogues this one was located near a local non-conformist chapel.
The synagogue was of modest proportions, being some 28 feet by 30 feet. It had a lady's gallery at the west end (near the road) a central bimah and an ark raised up and reached by steps at the opposite end. It main architectural feature was a lantern dome which no longer survives. This apparently emulated that at Cheltenham. There was also the more unusual feature of a large room underneath used as a school-room, though one it probably had a variety of uses and would have been a very useful facility. Entry was through a passage from the entrance.
Torode noted some coloured glass left in a window as one of the only indicators of its original use. Henry Bazar, of Cheltenham synagogue related to me that in the early 1990s some wall paper had been uncovered with Hebrew characters written on it - perhaps a remnant of the old school room?
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67. Holloway Bros and Hill Paul Mills - Threadneedle Street
The sites and factories that were formerly the employers of the Jews of Stroud, still survive at the foot of the valley in Stroud. Threadneedle Street, is off Lansdowne Road, via High Street and Bedford Street.Top
68. Former Jewish homes, no. 105, 106, and site of the first synagogue - Slad Road
Jews lived at a wide variety of locations. No. 105 and 106 Slad Road are typical of the sorts of houses that the Jewish artisans of Stroud lived in. Essentially they lived in the Victorian housing of the Lansdowne area in much the same conditions as their neighbours and fellow artisans. No. 105 was the home of Joseph Goldstein a master tailor who had a family of ten in 1891. He was from Russian Poland and had arrived in Whitechapel in the East End of London in c. 1876, working there for some four years before arriving at Painswick / Stroud in c. 1880. In 1881 he had six hands working for him. No. 105 is the end part of a terrace of three houses off the road up an alley way near the church.No. 106 was the home of Hyman Levy another master tailor and is again part of a terrace, but in this case the mid-terrace. Levy was also from Poland and had a family of five. Levy had started as a tailors’ machinist when he arrived in Stroud by 1881. Both houses of these tailors are a variant on the usual terrace houses in that they have an additional 2nd (attic) storey with short windows. This is very likely to relate to their tailoring work as master tailors.
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69. Miscellaneous Sites
Jews also lived or worked in the following streets in 1881 and 1891, the street numbers relate to the 1891 survey and are taken from Bernard Susser's study of the Census material. However street numbers cannot always be relied to remain unaltered especially where there has been bombing or developments in the streets, though local fire insurance maps will often give the Victorian numbers if they survive in the local archives. Where street are denoted '91 these occur only in the 1891 survey.The streets with the largest numbers of Jewish residences were, Slad Road, Middle Street, Bath Place, Nelson Street and Belleview Road.
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70. The Remains of the Synagogue - High Street
Dillons is situated at 50-54 High Street, at the lower end of the street opposite Marks and Spencer.The chamber is under no.50 and is clearly marked in the right-hand side of the store, back from the frontage, with an imaginative, near full size, panoramic floor photograph which shows the chamber as if you were looking down into it through a glass floor. No.54 is the left-hand side of the store. If this sounds confusing, no.52 used to be the living quarters and later the offices that spanned the upper floors of 52-4.
During the excavations, it was discovered that no.54 was concealing the remains of Guildford's "House of Correction" or prison.
On the stairs to the first floor there is a large colour panoramic photograph giving a rolling view of the interior walls of the chamber, showing all the interior details. The shop has full displays of finds and the interpretation of the site both upstairs and downstairs. There are a number of 12th-13th century finds of 'high status' pottery, as well as some more humble ware, that may have been used by any Jews if they had lived there. This is all well worth visiting in its own right.
For those undertaking a more detailed look at the remains or photographs, the following can be observed. The building is a small, almost exactly square, stone built chamber (approx. 2.58m x 2.60m), whose original floor level is at medieval basement level. The chamber has remains of two doorway entries and exits. The doorway in the south wall - no longer extant but represented by the surviving flight of stone steps leading down into the chamber - almost certainly represents the original entry to the chamber from ground level. The second very substantial doorway, which survives in the north wall, led via steps (which are no longer extant) to a lower cellar level. This adjacent lower level was probably contemporary and used in conjunction with the original chamber.
The doorways are asymmetrically opposed to each other. The north doorway is located in the north west corner of the building. However, the south doorway is located to the east of the centerline of the north-south axis of the building, though the extreme corners of the doors are opposite each other.
The main entrance and stairs in the south wall of the building may well predate the rest of the chamber as the rest of the room is clearly constructed around and to accommodate the stair blocks of the entry. It may be observed that the stone bench on the east side is suddenly angled slightly upwards to meet the bottom step of the entry flight of stairs. This angle is initiated underneath the south column on the east side, the discontinuity being betrayed by a mortar wedge between the base of the column and the top of the bench which it rests on. Full excavation suggests it followed a sloping medieval ground level.
Inside the chamber itself, the most striking features are a series of stone benches sited in niches let into the thickness of the wall (sedilia). The most striking of these are in the east and west walls, the niches being defined and divided by the remnants of four decorated columns, shaped from outer surfaces of the masonry blocks dividing the niches. Each of the columns are different in their design and decoration. Sedilias, in the Christian context, provided high-status seating and denoted a meeting room of some sort, such as a chapter house. The sedilia seats, with the columns, would also have been places of honour.
The niches in the north and south walls are without this ornamentation, and the bench in the eastern half of the south wall comprises of the lower step of the stairs which has been extended into the corner. Here, there is no recess as such, though the wall has been sloped back a little to give more space.
The room has been constructed of chalk masonry blocks with rubble infill. The infill was originally covered with plaster. The room was also richly decorated with abstract and geometrical wall designs. The five pigments used include indigo, a very rare and valuable colouring agent in the period. The designs appear to terminate around a square of colour in the north west corner, an area of blue-green background, framed by a black lined surround which suggested it may be unfinished as compared to the rest of the chamber. It is interesting to note that, from the 4th century, draped curtain always represented the Aron Kodesh, in both Jewish and Christian iconography.
There is evidence that the floor was tiled and there was perhaps a wooden surface too. Also, the soil analysis showed that the floor was probably covered with rush material.
In reconstruction, the building is thought to have been carried above a single chamber to well above the original ground level, terminating in a rough stone and mortar barrel vault. The whole would have been lofty when seen from the interior, but would probably have been a relatively small and inconspicuous building when seen from the outside. The upper walls and vault would have been partly supported on Romanesque arches springing from the capitals on the internal columns and from points on the corner members. It is thought that there would have been small windows perhaps set into the upper section of the walls between the top of the niches and the bottom of the barrel vaulting. The original doors, both external and internal, were evidently very substantial and lockable. This would have been a very secure building.
The lower doorway in the west wall would have led down to a lower level. What it lead down to has yet to be determined but the ashlar work surviving from the exterior suggests a small adjoining chamber. Pottery observed under the present concrete floor indicates the adjoining room was contemporary and therefore was part of the function of the main chamber.
On the top surviving ashlar block of the lower doorway is a cluster of four deeply drilled holes, forming part of the eastern side around the doorway to the lower level of the building. This could have been for a permanent lighting fixture. The synagogue at Rouen has a series of similarly dimensioned holes at the same level on one of the interior walls. This was interpreted as fixtures for a series of lights making up a wall-mounted chanukiah. Medieval manuscript drawings of German synagogues generally show them with long trays or troughs fixed to the walls at about shoulder height for supporting and containing large numbers of candles. Another source from medieval Spain relates that the synagogues there were habitually lit with hundreds of candles. On the eastern, mid-recess, there are remnants of scorch marks from a lamp, which has been suggested as the ner tamid (eternal light) by the ark, which could have filled the middle recess.
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71. Guildford Castle and its chapel – Quarry Street
On leaving Dillons and turning left down the High Street, the end of Quarry Street, to the left, is soon reached. On walking down the street, the rear entrance doors to the synagogue site is reached on the left. These mark one end of the L shaped site on which the synagogue was built.Further down the street, past the local museum, is the entrance to the castle grounds. The keep of the castle can be seen clearly on entering the gardens on top of a steep mound.
The interior of the keep can be visited, and the chapel chamber on which the speculated synagogue is based, is in the corner of the keep to the right of the entrance. This chamber is gated and may be locked. However, the interior can be seen through the gate.
Access to the castle and further information about the synagogue site can be obtained from the museum.
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72. Site of first Jewish marriage in 1842 at no. 21/22 Lower Briggate
The Commercial Court entrance at 21/22 Lower Briggate, was the site of first Jewish marriage in 1842, at no. 21/22. Underneath where the railway bridge is now (built 1869) was no. 9 Briggate - the site of the Leeds branch of Hyam and Co. a national chain of Jewish owned men's outfitters. It opened in 1840 and the first Jewish bridegroom, James Cohen Pirani, was manager. The store later moved to no. 42 Briggate. The couple moved to Birmingham some years later to manage the Hyam branch there, and in 1857/8 they emigrated (with six children) to Australia where they and their descendants prospered. Sadly there are now no descendants.Top
73. The Grand Pump Rooms - Abbey Square
The Grand Pump Rooms were one of the great centers of Bath social life and would have been the resort of many of the wealthy Jewish visitors to the spa. The Pump Room itself dispensed until recent times, the warm Bath water, taken by Jewish visitors, that was aptly described as tasting like 'warm flat-irons'. Jewish visitors would often take the waters first in the morning and then attend a morning concert in the building with later diversion around the nearby shops, promenades or the Upper and Lower Rooms. After all this relaxation, another concert, the theatre or parties might follow - a routine that could last some weeks.Top
74. Moses Montefiori Synagogue and Foundation
The synagogue and Montefiore Estate are in the east side of Ramsgate, close to East Cliff. The main access to the synagogue and estate is very difficult to find as it is up an adopted private road without signposts. The synagogue is off the Hereson Road. The best landmark to look for is the Honey Suckle Inn, the road up to the estate is close by starting between 101 and 103 Hereson Road.The synagogue was dedicated on 16 June 1833 and intended as pious imitation of Moses Montefiori's ancestral synagogue in Leghorn Italy. The architect was Davis Mocatta (b.1806) the noted civil and synagogue architect
The building is raised above the level of the road on a bank or terrace. It is a simple rectangle with a small apse for the Ark at the rear end and a similarly projecting entrance and foyer. The corners are angled at the four corners to meet the apse and foyer which are narrower than the main body of the building. The exterior is in a restrained Classical-Italianate style and the windows are quite plain, the most complex with severe neo-classical surrounds.
In terms of decoration one of the obvious features is an exterior clock with the inscription carried above and below the face; 'Time Flies: Virtue alone remains'. The synagogue is presently the only synagogue with an exterior clock, though in the past the old Chatham synagogue had a clock with Hebrew figures also, and the former Fournier Street Synagogue on Brick lane still has a sun dial.
The Montefiori coat of Arms is set to the left of the entrance, above the level of the door and is now increasingly weathered. There survives an ornate lamp bracket over the entrance but the lamp itself is absent. Otherwise part of the parapet-balustrade, concealing the roof-line is quite delicately fretted, almost appearing whimsical, compared to the massiveness of the moldings and decoration.
It had been originally intended not to have windows in the walls (in the medieval style of synagogue) and for the light to come from an opening in the roof. However some windows were intruded into the design, largely in the angles of the rebated corners of the building.
The interior is laid out with a ladies' gallery at the rear, a central bimah on the ground floor and the ark at the east end.
While the exterior is simple, the interior is elaborate, even rich. The entrance foyer is dominated by a magnificent marble fountain for the ritual washing of hands, set by the stairs up to the ladies gallery. The fountain is set into a recess in the wall with decorative marble surrounds. A marble basin on a free-standing pedestal receives the water from a spout concealed in a Levitical style ewer, supported by a hand projecting from a representation of a swirling mass of cloud or water. The water is supplied from a hidden pipe and tap.
Above the pedestal is a brass-memorial plaque to Captain Robert Montefiori Sebag Montefiori [sic] (b. 1882), who died in Alexandria in 1915, from wounds received by the Turks at Gallipoli. Robert was the son of Arthur Sebag Montefiori. His early death tragically cut short a promising career - a first at Balliol College, Oxford; a call to the Bar and election to the LCC for Clapham, as well as service for the Mahamad of the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation.
On entering the synagogue proper, the first impression is from the marble that lines the walls, top to bottom, punctuated by classical colonnades. Mrs. Arthur Sebag Montefiori had the walls of the synagogue lined with marble in 1912, which provided a sumptuous if cold (and now damp) effect. The original walls were plain painted plaster over brick. The numerous candelabra and candle holders are highly ornate and florid. There is a prominent octagonal sky-light, with dark-red glass in the middle and on the margins, and decorative supporting iron-work for the glass.
The seating was renewed in oak on the centenary of the synagogue in 1933. Sir Moses' Chair and reading desk are still preserved in the left-hand corner nearest the Ark. His arm-chair has a cord across it, allegedly because one of the occupants of Mill House tried to sit in the revered gentleman's chair in the 1970s.
The ladies' gallery at the rear has a very high, open-lattice, wrought iron screen carried on top of the balcony rail. On the right hand side at the front is seating for the female members of the Montefiori family in the same style as that for Sir Moses.
The ark is set up on a plinth and recessed into the wall (and also the rear apse) and has imposing mahogany doors in a double severe neo-classical frame. The double recessing strongly focuses the eye on the ark. The interior is lined with pitch pine staves - like a boat - which provided a very dry interior for the scrolls. There are still numerous Torah scrolls with interesting rimmonim and some older Torah mantles. One of the originals was made from material taken from Judith Montefiori's wedding dress, a floral design hand-painted on satin. Above the ark recess are three small, circular, windows, the central of which has a representation of the Ten Commandments and the two to the sides have Stars of David.
There are a number of interesting appurtenances. Principally an ornate stone stand for a silver basin and ewer for the use of Cohanim and a metal lectern.
Until relatively recent times the synagogue was lit only by candle light, like Bevis Marks synagogue.
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75. Touring Jewish Dover
If one is passing through Dover and has transport, there is genuine Jewish interest to be searched out here and two or three hours of touring will be rewarded. The major feature of interest is undoubtedly the cemetery on the hills at the edge of the town. There are many interesting tombs at the cemetery as well as relics of the old synagogue which have been brought to the site. Beyond anything else it is certainly one of the most attractive and idyllic Jewish cemeteries that one may visit.Beyond this, the major focus of interest is the site of the synagogue and the Snargate old 'Jewish Quarter'. Additionally the site of Cohen's school off the Folkestone Road, and the surviving 'Mount Ellis' and 'Mildmay Lodge' are of interest.
It is not recommended to try and walk between the different sites!
Unfortunately the bombing and redevelopment of the town has obliterated much of Old Dover. Yet this being said the town is still very atmospheric as a busy port and the presence of its former military history still looms strongly in the form of old fortifications, commanding presences in the surrounding hills. All clear and powerful forces that shaped and supported the growth and history of Dover's Jewish community.
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76. Jacob's Well Pub -- Hall Ings
Close to the Hilton Hotel, at Hall Ings, is to be found the Jacob's Well Pub. The pub's name commemorates the former famous Jacob's Well, which used to be close by. A local writer recalls, 'Since the Bronze Age, the Bradford wool trade has depended on its deep wells ofpure soft water. The most precious was known as Jacob's Well.'
Jacob's Well is placed on the Bradford trail, due to its antiquity and the fact that in some places the name 'Jacob's Well' has recorded a medieval mikveh site, such as at Bristol. Of course in this case, it may merely be an accolade paid to one of Bradford's most cherished wells, by reference to the famed, eponymous well of the Old Testament. This well may also be the one that appears on the original city coat of arms of 1847, as a 'well sable' another interesting Jewish association of the city
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77. Lincoln Cathedral
The Cathedral is remarkably rich in Jewish associations and it clearly demonstrates, to the careful observer, that there was much more to the relationship between Cathedral and Jews than simple hostility. It is even claimed by a host of historians that the present (rebuilt) Cathedral, was raised with loans provided by Aaron of Lincoln, who funded many major religious buildings and Cathedrals. He certainly did loan the money to build the Bishop's Palace, though I have yet to see the original documents supporting his loan for the larger building project, though if he did, it would have been in the last year of his life.One other surprising features of the Cathedral, is its many rich art works, depicting Jews and Jewish tradition. As is the case in a number of the great cathedrals in the north of England, the attitudes towards Jews and Jewish tradition displayed, covers a spectrum from positive or benign, to troubled and hostile, with the most controversial images usually coinciding with the period in the 13th century when there was increasing hostility towards the Jews sponsored by elements of the Church in Rome and England.
The Cathedral is rich in art and sculpture depicting the Old Testament in particular and there seems to be a particular love of the Old Testament material evidenced. Other sculpture and glasswork is based on Christian legends about Jews and Christian theological ideas about Judaism, some of which are linked to the remains of the shrine of Little Hugh. There are also depictions of non-Biblical and contemporary Jews and most remarkably there is sculpture based on Jewish legends, apparently both direct from Jewish tradition as well as through assimilation into Christian tradition, which is an exceptional, even unique feature and probably demonstrates that the Cathedral did at times have a genuine and remarkable theological interchange with the Jewish community.
It is unwise to rush to any generalizations about the representations of Jews, though it is clear in the case of Lincoln that the evolution of the fabric and iconography of Lincoln Cathedral was in a very real way influenced by the relationships between Jews and Christians, and the fabric of the Cathedral was literally sensitive to the impress of its times, even to the presence of a numerically small group of local Jews.
In terms of other Jewish interest in the Cathedral, there are also to be found shrines and tombs of Christians who were important in medieval Jewish history, both philo-Semitic and anti-Semitic. The Cathedral has a copy of the Magna Carta which, it can be noted, specifically refers to medieval Jews in two of its clauses. The areas of Jewish interest are mostly concentrated on the south side of the Cathedral, where the builders choose to place much of the Old Testament imagery.
The Frieze on the West Front -- The Bosom of Abraham
To the west of the central door of the West Front (i.e. to left of the central door) is a newly restored panel showing the 'Bosom of Abraham' which is between the 'Harrowing of Hell' and the 'Story of Dives and Lazarus' in a corner. This scene, in which Abraham holds the souls of the dead before him, in a fold of cloth, with new souls being delivered by angels, draws on the Jewish tradition of Abraham being the gate-keeper to heaven, which had been drawn into Christian thought. Its position between the 'Harrowing of Hell', where the saved souls are being brought out of Hell by Christ, and the 'Story of Dives and Lazarus', where Abraham is mentioned in the story of Dives, in a heavenly context confirms its use of Abraham of the traditional gate-keeper of Heaven.
The Frieze on the West Front - Jewish legends in Christianity
Standing before the central main entrance, in the Western frontage of the cathedral there are the remains of a frieze inserted into the frontage of the old Cathedral, built by Bishop Remigius (1067-1092). This frieze is remarkable as it preserves elements of Jewish legends among its sculptures and dates from about 1145.
The frieze from the central door southwards (i.e. to towards the right of the central door, when looking at the frontage) depicts the Old Testament narrative from the Creation onwards, in chronological order. Much has now gone; the first section that survives is of the Expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. Some of these panels cannot be seen as present as they have been cased in for conservation reasons, but it is anticipated that high-definition photographs will be placed directly on the casings, in situ, to enable a degree of appreciation of the originals.
The panel does not show the labours of Adam and Eve as is usual in Christian iconography. Instead two mysterious men, one older and one younger, are to be seen. The first digs with a spade, the second uses a hoe and plants can be seen growing upwards. The final element of the panel is the hand of God reaching down from Heaven with a small bag with unknown contents.
The answer to the puzzle of this strange scene is provided by an ancient Jewish legend dating back to between 1st and 4th century. This relates that, after the Expulsion, Adam and Eve were given seeds to grow for food as well as a gift of perfume. Thus the frieze shows Adam (the older man) tilling the ground with his son Cain (the classic Biblical agrarian) and being given the gift of seeds and perhaps perfume by God.
Jewish tradition still keeps the idea of perfume as a comfort for the soul. In the Havdalah service, which concludes the Jewish Shabbat, the sniffing of spices from the small spice 'tower' is said to be a direct comfort and compensation to the soul for having descended back to the mundane sphere after the spiritual elevation of the Sabbath.
This essentially Jewish legend (identified by G. Zarnecki) crops up at Lincoln as it had entered the Christian mainstream through a Greek (and Latin) text, The Life of Adam and Eve.
The Giants at the Flood
The second element drawn from Jewish tradition is equally mysterious. In following the frieze around the corner on the south wall of the frontage, the first panel relating to the story of the Flood is reached. This shows the building of the Ark. The main interest is in the second and third of the Flood sequence which are now to be found, displaced, now within the Ringer's Chapel on the southwest corner. As one enters the Ringer's Chapel the panel is behind one's shoulder to the right, high up on the wall, on a level with a gallery. It can be seen adequately from floor level, if you have good eye-sight, but it is best seen from the gallery, which may not find favour with some visitors, due to the climb up the stairs to the gallery which is rather high up. The panel can presently only be seen on the 'roof-top' tour of the Cathedral, or on other tours, or by special arrangement as the chapel is usually locked.
The second of these scenes shows three men, with rising floodwaters lapping at their legs, reaching up to nearly submerged trees. At the furthest left the figure has a 'strongman belt', with a prominent disc, which was used to show those supernaturally gifted with strength. This denotes that all the men are Giants.
Such a Flood scene is unique, according to Zarnecki, and is a dramatic working of a Jewish legend written down in the 9th and 10th century. These men represent the Giants of Genesis 6.4, the supernatural spawn of an illicit union between angels and the daughters of man. They had escaped the destruction already suffered by mere mortals, who had tried in their desperation to get into the Ark. The legend relates that these people were drowned have been repulsed by wild animals in the Ark.
The Giants, however, were too tall to drown and therefore mocked the threat of God's judgment, either by the waters above or below, as they thought themselves immortal. God's response was to make each drop of water of the deluge pass through the fires of Gehenna (Hell), before they fell to the Earth. Thus the Giants were scalded to death, from above and below, as a punishment for their temerity and in an echo of the hot lusts that had given originally caused the illicit conjugation of the angels with the daughters of men.
The transmission of this scene to Lincoln's stones is much more difficult to explain than the first. It does not seem to have been assimilated into the Christian mainstream before hand, as was the Expulsion legend. This leaves an enigma, suggesting, perhaps, a personal contact between the designer of the frieze and the scholars of the Jewish community?
The Shrine of Little Hugh -- St Hugh's Choir
The remains of the shrine to Little Hugh, the alleged victim of the Lincoln 'blood libel', are in the aisle to the south of ('Great') St Hugh's Choir (or the South Choir) and is set in the south choir isle against the choir screen.
The original plinth and rear support of the shrine survive. There are also the two broken stumps of ribs at the back that made what would have been part of a panel at the side of a small side arch forming the upper structure of the shrine. There are still visible traces of rich green and blue pigment used to decorate parts of the shrine. At the end of the last century it is said there were remnants of gilding as well.
A pierced, base of the shrine has gone, along with an ornate canopy with tall side pinnacles, niches, and another decorative finial with a niche. This was all removed in the Civil War. It seems that there was also a figure of Little Hugh in the shrine.
Overall the shrine was a tall monument, at least up to the top of the choir wall, if not higher.
In 1736 the painted, freestone figure of a little boy, about 20 inches high, still existed and was noted by an antiquarian. It was by tradition part of the original shrine. The figure was supposed to have had the marks of crucifixion. The head had by that stage been broken off. It had been moved from the shrine and was in, 'a by-place just behind the High Altar, where we found it covered with dust and obscurity'.
In 1791, the tomb was opened and the remains of Hugh were found in a stone coffin below the shrine and seen for the first time since the middle ages. The boy was apparently four feet and two inches tall and was thought to have a rather long thin face. No doubt modern forensic work might have been able to say something about the cause of his death, if it had been available in the period, though we do know that his teeth had not been smashed as alleged in the blood libel stories.
A careful examination of the surroundings of the shrine shows other significant features. The shrine is well integrated with the screen wall of the choir and looks as if it had been carefully planned and positioned to be a focus of the aisle in which it stands. It by no means looks as though it was carelessly thrust into a pre-existing design. The fact that the broken ribs are part of a continuous blind Gothic arcading running the length of the screen wall suggests that it was contemporary with the decoration of the rest of the wall.
Overall, the evidence shows that the shrine of Little Hugh was a major feature of the south side of the Cathedral. While the remains of the shrine in the modern day make it look deceptively minor there is little doubt it was very much more impressive in its original state.
The status and medieval meaning of the shrine is also indicated by nearby symbolic figures that would have been obvious to the medieval pilgrim. On entering the gate to the south aisle, from the nave, there is a highly decorated capital on the left, at the threshold. Easily visible, on the capital, are two very sweet-looking owls, looking down at passers-by.
These owls have a specific Jewish meaning. They are almost certainly 'Night Owls' ('Noctua' in medieval bestiaries) as distinct from common Owls ('Bubo'). Here they refer to represent the redemption of a Christ who chose to be born a Jew, though he was killed by Jews and seeks out all sinners, including Jews. The medieval Aberdeen Bestiary says this of the Night Owl.
'In a mystic sense, the night-owl signifies Christ. Christ loves the darkness of night because he does not want sinners - who are represented by darkness - to die but to be converted and live. ... The night-owl lives in the cracks in walls, as Christ wished to be born one of the Jewish people... But Christ is crushed in the cracks of the walls, because he is killed by the Jews. ... Christ shuns the light in the sense that he detests and hates vainglory. ... In a moral sense, moreover, the night-owl signifies to us not just any righteous man, but rather one who lives among other men yet hides from their view as much as possible. He flees from the light, in the sense that he does not look for the glory.'
Elsewhere, the alternative, is the use of the common Owl (Bubo) which is a virulent anti-Semitic image, representing the spiritual blindness of the Jews, shunning of the light of the Gospels. Common Owls are often shown with large hooked nose like beaks (a deliberate medieval Jewish stereo-type) and were said to live in their own filth (another anti-Semitic stereotype) and are shown being attacked by other (Christian) birds.
The use of Night Owls, in the immediate context of the Shrine of Little Hugh, is most interesting and by the standards of its times, and given the context of the shrine, moderate, even enlightened, when it would have been easy to have recourse to the absolutely hostile image of the common Owl. This impression is reinforced by reference to the other (repeated figures) on the same column where the owls occur, which appear to be that of the 'Jaculus', the winged serpent, another medieval symbol of the redemptive power of Christ. In relation to the shrine these images seem to be offered more in sadness than anger.
It must be remembered that in the largely illiterate medieval world, religious symbols and figures played an important role for the worshipper or pilgrim. They evoked often complex stories and narratives, religious and theological ideas which not would have been readily understood by otherwise illiterate worshippers. Even small parish churches are often replete with whole series of figures throughout the building based on Bible themes or even aspects of Classical pagan mythology that had acquired specific Christian meanings.
More symbolism with Jewish reference is to be found in the Judgment Porch on the south of the Angel Choir. Medieval pilgrim probably passed through the porch on various routes through the Cathedral, to shrines, such as the shrine of Little Hugh and 'Great' St Hugh of Avalon, in the Angel Choir and elsewhere. In this porch is a life-size female figure representing the Church triumphant. She stands on plinth, which may depict an angel. Opposite, on the other side of the porch is the figure of defeated Synagogue, who is held up on the back of a figure of a bearded medieval Jew, complete with the Jewish badge of the Middle Ages, the double tablets of the Law, on his breast. Thus, for the medieval pilgrim following this route, they would have seen reassuring and triumphal Christian imagery relating to the spiritual victory of the Church over the Synagogue, this symbolism being a theological rebuke to Jews and Judaism. However, the fact that Synagogue, is depicted in the place of honour to the right of Christ in the porch, is a nuance that is important to note and theologically, probably alludes to the theology of St. Paul that the Church is 'in-grafted' into the 'true vine' of Israel.
The cathedral has over many years placed a short notice by the shrine of Little Hugh, to explain the shrine, though it is easy for the casual visitor to completely miss the shrine. The notice has its own history and has evolved over the years.
Before 1959 a notice largely repeated the traditional libel. But in 1959 it was replaced by the then Dean, the Rev D.C. Dunlop, who was reported by the Daily Telegraph as saying that the Chapter did not wish, 'to see things that are untrue up on the walls of the Cathedral' and that a new notice would correct the record. This new notice, withdrawing the libel, remained in place for a good many years, but in recent years has been revised as not entirely satisfactory from the point of view of the Jewish (and Christian) community. At the time of writing, in July 2008, the notice is being entirely re-written in collaboration between the Lincoln Jewish community, the Cathedral, JTrails and Elisa van Court; the latter who initiated the re-interpretation in 1997. The new notice is the fruit of excellent inter-faith relations and is an important symbol of the real dialogue and understanding that has occurred in more recent years.
The Angel Choir - site of the Shrine of St Hugh of Avalon
The site of the shrine and burial place of St Hugh of Avalon, the friend of the Jews, is in the Angel Choir, in the east end of the cathedral. The remains of the saint were translated there in 1280, but the head shrine was removed in the Reformation, just leaving its ornate base, which can still be seen in situ to day. A modern shrine takes the place, of the head shrine. The actual position of the saint's remains and the original 'body' shrine, is thought to be marked by a near-by18th century table-top tomb. The so-called Dean's Eye window, the rose window in the north transept recently fully restored, includes two roundels, one showing what is thought to be Bishop Hugh's funeral (where the local Jews were said to have publicly mourned the bishop).
Also in the east end of the Cathedral are other tombs of Christians who were in significant to Jewish history. One contains the viscera of Queen Eleanor who was an enemy of medieval Anglo-Jews, playing a role in their persecution, both in Lincoln and throughout the realm.
The tomb of Bishop Grosseteste is also in the Choir area. In Oxford, he was the Chancellor of the University and first Lector of the Dominicans. In both capacities he was in contact with the Jewish community and intervened in the life of the community, sometimes approving of repressive measures against Jewish communities, even while a keen Hebraist.
Miracles of the Virgin - Theophilus and the Virgin, the miracle of the Jewish boy of Bourges
Other stained glass of Jewish interest includes the windows depicting the miracles of the Virgin, which are in the east window of the north choir aisle. These date from the first half of the 13th century and coincide with a period where the Jews were increasingly persecuted and linked with the Anti-Christ. The first miracle (which is very commonly depicted in Europe) shows a Jew as part of a complex story. In the legend, Theophilus, an archdeacon in Asia Minor, having declined to be made a bishop, changed his mind and entered into a pact with the Devil, in the form of a Jewish wizard, to reverse his decision. Struck by remorse at his action, Theophilus changed his mind again and the Virgin miraculously not only convinced God to forgive him but she also descended into Hell and persuaded the Devil to renounce the pact.
In addition to the miracle of Theophilus, Lincoln Cathedral uniquely illustrates, in another 13th Century window, an old anti-Semitic fable, representing a less well-known miracle of the Virgin. This legend recounts that a Jewish glassmaker of Bourges, enraged to discover that his son had attended church and communion, threw him into a furnace; but the boy was saved by miraculous intervention of the Virgin. The Jew is shown with a pointed red hat, typical of medieval Jews, though the use of the red in the hat is being used to denote evil. In the oven scene, he is shown pitching his struggling son into the oven, who is shown with little thin red legs. In 13th century England, and indeed Lincoln, there was increasing conversions of Jews and there were real tensions between Jews and converted Jews who often still lived in their midst.
The Cathedral provides information to assist with the precise locations of all the stained glass as a binder with information on all the glass can be consulted at the Cathedral Information Desk in the north transept.
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78. The Shop and Residence of Joel Moss - 25 and 29 Bridge Street
Bridge Street had several Jewish businesses in it in the 19th century, though this was not the prime shopping area of Northampton. Joel Moss (d. 1878) was a general dealer from London and had his home, shop and family at the above address in the 1860s and 1870s. The building, a substantial Victorian commercial building, now survives as sports-bar and night-club on the east side of Bridge Street, just down hill from the junction of Angel Street. After Gonski and Davis, he was one of the earliest modern Jews in Northampton.Top
79. Moyses Hall, Cornhill
Moyses Hall is on the north-eastern corner of the Buttermarket. Moyses Hall is an important example of a Norman first-floor hall. The original building was divided into two sides, a greater eastern side and with a lesser western side. Both sides have their own seperate but adjoined roofs running the length of the buildings.The exterior has flint-knapped rubble walls. The quoins, buttresses and window mouldings are all of fine cut stone. There were a number of Norman windows. There were three windows in the three bays forming the eastern side of the building, one of these however was a blind arcade. This side collapsed in 1805 and was rebuilt. Two original windows survive at the front overlooking the market.
The interior consisted of a large vaulted undercroft, divided into two, into what is now called the Undercroft and West Gallery. Over the undercroft, on the first floor was the main living accomodation. This consisted of a main hall, with an attached solar or bedding chamber for the owner over the West Gallery. There was also perhaps a third chamber at the eastern end of the building of which nothing remains.
The presence of this is indicated by later additions to the eastern end. The "Passage" on the ground floor and the "Edwardson Room" on the upper floor, are a 16th century addition. These are thought to be a replacement of an original 12th century annexe, with a courtyard access to the west side.
The best preserved and most impressive part of the building is the undercroft, a six bayed structure. This is supported on vaults springing from two simple, square-headed, Norman columns. There is a medieval door direct to the street. The shallow, brick, entry arches into the West Gallery are an 16th century insertion.
The West Gallery is also Norman and largely original. It is a three-bayed structure. The main undercroft may have been used for business, with the West Gallery being used for storage.
On the upper floor, the Hall was the main function room of the house. The interior is now bland, most of the original features are gone. However the two Norman windows over-looking the market are well preserved. These still have internal window seats and give a strategic view into the market-place. One tends to think of such halls as banqueting halls, but they were often used for business meetings as well.
The original interior would have been exceptionally light and airy for a building of its period. By the standards of the time this would have been luxurious indeed. It would also have been a very secure building.
The first recorded mention of the existence and name of Moyses Hall comes in 1328 in connection with riots between the town and the (clerical) gown.
The building was also built in the period when the west front of the abbey was completed. It shares the same Barnack stone used in its construction and it is likely that Moyses Hall was built by the abbey masons. The suggested synagogue at Guildford seems to have been made off the back of the castle building project - a similar principle to what could have applied to Moyses Hall. Another idea is that Abbot Sampson built various stone houses for poor clerks in c. 1198. This could have been one of them, though its grandeur would have been unusual for such a function. Its layout also strongly indicates its use was for a rich merchant family rather than for clerics.
While it is easy to assume that the name Moyses ("Moses") demonstrates a Jewish owner this in not necessarily so. Both Mose and Moyse are common Suffolk, Christian, surnames and examples can be seen in the names of the rioters of 1327. However this being said there is a parrallel example of a "Moses Hall" in Oxford in the period.
The house is now a museum and carries a fascinating range of local heritage items, some of which are a little macabre to say the least...
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80. The Botanic Gardens and Magdalen College
The Jewish Cemeteries and Penicillin Commemorative PlinthThe starting point of the tour, contains the sites of the two medieval Jewish cemeteries. The original cemetery (founded. c.1190-1231) was established on vacant low-laying floodlands next to the west bank of the River Cherwell, outside the East Gate of the town. The tradition is that a Jewish cemetery should be outside the walls of a walled town. The cemetery covered an area approximate to the extent of the present day medieval buildings of Magdalen College, but the finds of burials this century (1913 and 1976) suggest that the actual graves were confined to the driest, south-western side of the cemetery (ie. St Johns Quad and Chaplains' Quad near the tower).
The rest was probably an area planted with trees and shrubs, with - as archeology reveals - some ash and willow, and a profusion of escaped garden herbs, plants, and wild flowers; including black mustard, corn-flowers, strawberry plants, and corn-cockle, bordering the swift clear waters of the Cherwell. Surely a tranquil spot, and one which explains why Jewish cemeteries were called ‘Jews Gardens’ by the Christians.
It is possible that the south-east corner of the site contained a ritual bath (mikveh) for bathing the dead. The 1987 excavation revealed a spring-fed stone culvert, with steps going down into it, in the old Hospital Chapel, which according to ones interpretation of the mason's chisel marks, could date from the time of the cemetery rather than the Hospital. Also, there is evidence from an Oxford antiquarian of a fine stone building on the site during the time of the cemetery. If that is the case, a Jewish ritual bath was reused for Christian purposes and became integral to a Christian place of worship. The stones from this culvert were taken after the excavation, cut to size and built into the wall of the new Magdalen JCR and Terrace Bar. When they were first built into the wall they were clearly visible, but now they are virtually impossible to discern due to weathering, though they are part of the lower courses of stone and are more irregular than the other blocks and have early grafitti on them and other markings.
The Jewish community lost this site in 1231 when the king gave it to the nearby hospital of St John. In compensation, the hospital gave them a smaller site opposite, an area which now closely matches the memorial rose gardens at the front of the Botanic Gardens. A memorial plaque (1931) on the wall to the right of the Danby Gate (ie. the main entrance) records these facts. After the expulsion, the hospital took over the second cemetery, and it joined the first as a Christian cemetery for the dead of the hospital. Masses of bones were discovered in 1641 on the site of the second cemetery, when the Botanic Gardens were being set up.
The Rose Garden also has a stone commemorative plinth (1951) recalling the discovery of penicillin by the team led by Florey, which gives the site another Jewish association.
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81. Jewelry Shop of Phineas Abrahams - no.15 and 29 Briggate
Proceeding up Briggate and at no.15 and 29 Briggate, the jeweller Phineas Abrahams traded in the 1830's. He had come from Portsea where he had been a ship's chandler to the Royal Navy. Before 1867 Boar Lane was very narrow. Gabriel Davis, father of the first bride Abigail, was first leader of the Jewish community and an optician and optical instrument maker, based at 24 Boar Lane. Old yards on either side of Briggate are on the sites of original burgage plots dating from 1207 when the street was originally laid out (some are where arcades are now sited) where a number of Jews lived and traded during latter part of 19th C. (The 800th Anniversary of the setting out of Briggate and the granting of a charter to establish a borough of Leeds was celebrated in 2007.)Many of the shops on this street (the main shopping street in Leeds) have/had Jewish associations -- not least of which are Marks and Spencer's and Montague Burton, both originally Leeds based businesses. County Arcade, now part of Victoria Quarter, is on the site of a yard called Wood Street, in which David Harrison had a men's outfitters shop. He was the great great grandfather of Rev, Anthony Gilbert, cantor at Etz Chaim Synagogue. At the corner of Briggate and what is now the Headrow, in the 1830's, was another men's outfitter also originally from Portsea - Barnett Joseph. His adverts in the local press always mentioned that his shop was closed during the hours of the Sabbath. The original building still stands and the shop is now occupied by a Japanese firm.
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82. The House of Lyon Joseph - 4 Lower Church Street
The House of Lyon Joseph - 4 Lower Church Street, Abbey GreenGoing due south of the Abbey, via Abbey Street, the home of Lyon Joseph in the exceptionally picturesque Abbey Green, is quickly reached. Lyon Joseph lived in 4 Lower Church Street from 1815. Joseph had been a pedlar in the West Country and later a successful shipper. He retired to Bath as a pawnbroker apparently after serious financial set-backs. Later the same house was the residence of S. Solomon, an optician of Bath, Clifton (Bristol) and Cheltenham.
The Revd. Solomon Wolfe was also there; he was the reader of the Hebrew Congregation from 1816 to 1866, thus he was effectively the first rabbi of the first synagogue in Bath in all but name, as well as the founder of the second Bath synagogue. Wolfe came from Prussia and arrived in Bath in 1816. He also acted as schochet, probably the mohel (ritual circumciser) and was later the secretary of marriages from 1842. At his death in 1866 the congregation must have been at a considerable loss. It is very likely that the loss of someone like Wolfe, who was obviously dedicated to his small community, probably played a part in its decline as it can be very difficult for small communities to perform the skilled services that a trained rabbi can provide. Indeed after his death a string of rabbis were appointed but none stayed more than five years.
Corn Street, the site of the synagogue, lies about a five or ten minutes walk from the Abbey Green, by way of York Street, Bath Street and Hot Bath Street (with the medieval Cross Bath the main point of interest on the way). Those with a strong interest and historical imagination can detour to the site of the second synagogue which is now entirely re-developed.
83. The Moses Montefiori Mausoleum
After Judith Montefiori's death, Sir Moses made a mausoleum for her in imitation of the Tomb of Rachel on the road between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Part of the reason for this was because his wife had shown an interest in it and arranged for its restoration on her visit to Palestine in 1839.Sir Moses was also buried in the mausoleum, in a plain coffin, wearing a cap made for him in Jerusalem, the tallit that he had worn at his wedding to Lady Judith, as well as various souvenirs from Jerusalem and documents relating to his charitable work. He also has quantities of dust from the Valley of Jehosaphat placed in his coffin. Also when his coffin was placed in the grave a stone - thought to be from the temple - was placed beneath the head of the coffin. This had inscribed on it in Hebrew, 'Thy servants love her stones, as they look with favour on the dust of the holy land'. (Psalm, 102, 14)
The present Mausoleum is a domed structure. The dome contains a cupola with red and orange coloured glass in the form of star-burst, or sun motif, which permeates the tomb with a melancholy light, not dissimilar to that which lights the interior of the founders tomb at the Dulwich Picture Gallery. There are wooden doors with inset wrought iron screens at the entry with Moorish or eastern-style motifs. Inside are the two tombs of both Sir Moses and Judith in red granite, with a metal lattice screen, again in a Moorish style. Above the entry is a Hebrew inscription, which translated reads,
"Into His hands my spirit I consign
While wrapped in sleep, that I again may wake:
And with my soul, my body I resign;
The Lord with me--no fears my soul can shake."
There are prayer boards on the walls of the mausoleum and a ner tamid. The tombs of the Montefiori's are inscribed in both Hebrew and English. The Hebrew inscription is a poetic elegy by Montefiori to his wife.
In his later years Sir Moses spent a considerable amount of time at the mausoleum in meditation. There was a seat placed for him inside the tomb.
One additional feature of the tomb, is that it has been used to store what appear to be the only physical relics of Judith College. A long stone now in three parts, inscribed in Hebrew, resides neglected in one corner. It is probably a former lintel over the main entrance. The readable portion that faces away from the wall clearly reads 'Yeshiva'.
In recent years the tomb of Sir Moses has become a place of pilgrimage for Orthodox Jewish pilgrims.
84. The Jewish Cemetery -- Old Charlton Road
The Jewish Cemetery is sited on the North East edge of the town. It can be readily found from the town centre if one travels towards the London Road (becoming the A256) or along the Barton Road. Either of the two main roads north-west will cross or pass along Bridge Street and Frith Road. The Old Charlton Road leads directly off Frith Road and Bridge Street feeds into Frith Street. Therefore by turning right onto either of these streets from the centre, the cemetery can be found.The cemetery itself is located on the right hand side after the fork with Roman Road and is opposite one of the Christian cemeteries and a chapel of rest.
The cemetery is next to the road and is fronted with high, flint-knapped walls with locked Iron Gates. The burial enclosure is rectangular. The front half of the enclosure is without burials - in fact the remains of the foundations of the rectangular ohel and a circular carriage drive occupy much of this area. The ohel was originally built in 1870. On the wall or rested next to the wall to the right of the gate are a variety of plaques and inscriptions either preserved from the destroyed synagogue or relating to the cemetery.
The rear upper portion of the cemetery, containing most of the burials, is on a very steep slope with a central access path. The oldest burials are at the very rear i.e. the highest point, of the cemetery.
The cemetery is part of a natural amphitheatre and an expansive necropolis filling the surrounding land and hill sides. It is - for a cemetery - a charming and peaceful place with a wonderful rural location.
The cemetery was established after 1864 and by 1868 on land provided by the Dover Harbour Board. The dispute that occasioned its creation has already been described. Early maps show that it was built on what would have been low value land, on or next to old clay pits, between St Mary's and St James's Cemetery to the immediate south-west and north-east. The site has not been extended since the original foundation. The cemetery is still in use to day and there were recent interments at the time of our original visit.
In looking around the cemetery, the first points of interest, apart from the site of the ohel and entrance drive, are the plaques on or next to the wall to the right. Many of them are the only remnants of the synagogue destroyed in the Second World War, which were brought to the cemetery for preservation.
Several from the old synagogue give touching and wide ranging testimony in stone to the services and work of R.I. Cohen; the largest of all the memorials is a very large and now broken tablet leant against the wall:
THIS TABLET WAS [ERECTED TO THE] MEMORY OF
THE REVD R I COHEN OF SUSSEX HOUSE
IT WAS BY HIS INSTRUMENTALITY
THAT THE NEW SYNAGOGUE IN DOVER WAS [ERECTED]
AND THIS BURIAL GROUND WAS FORMED IN RE[SPECT]
OF HIS LAST WISH THAT THERE MIGHT BE A [BURIAL]
PLACE IN DOVER FOR THE MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNITY
HE LOVED SO WELL AND AMONG WHOM HE SPENT SO MANY
YEARS OF A LONG AND USEFULL LIFE
Another large tablet, shattered into pieces lies on the ground near the first:
THIS MEMORIAL TABLET
IS ERECTED TO THE MEMORY OF THE
REVD R I COHEN
OF SUSSEX [HOU]SE DOVER
WHO DIED IN LIV[ERPOOL] DEC 3RD 1865
IN THE 62ND YEAR OF HIS AGE
HE CONCEIVED THE IDEA OF BUILDING THIS
SYNAGOGUE AND BY HIS GREAT PERSONAL
EXERTIONS AND BY THE RESPEC[T] WHICH
HIS GOOD NAME CARRIED WITH IT [AM]ONG ALL
THE CLASSES OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY HE WAS
MAINLY INSTRUMENTAL BY COLLECTING SUFFI
CIENT FUNDS FOR ITS ERECTION WHILE ITS
MAINTAINANCE IN PEACE AND HONOR WAS
THE PRIDE AND DELIGHT OF HIS LIFE
BY GODS PERMISSION
THIS SYNAGOUE WAS MADE THE CLOSING
SCENE OF HIS EARTHLY LABORS
FOR THE LAST ACT OF HIS FAILING HEALTH
ALLOWED[?] HIM TO ACCOMPLISH
WAS THE READING OF THE PRAYERS O[N]
THE DAY OF ATONEMENT 5626
SOON AFTER WHICH
[IT P]LEASED GOD TO TAKE HIM
When we came across the tablet we had to completely reassemble it after it had been cast aside in a strewn heap for the recent clearing of the vegetation. Many of the smaller pieces have already been lost - though we managed to find chips and smaller fragments buried among debris. This memorial is in undoubted danger of being lost or stolen.
A white marble tablet set in the wall, and presented by the Dover congregation, also continues the justified valedictions to Rabbi Cohen:
THIS TABLET
IS ERECTED BY THE MEMBERS OF
THIS CONGREGATION
IN RECOGNITION OF THE INDEFATIGABLE
ZEAL EVINCED BY THE
REVD. R.I.COHEN. HONY. SECY.
TOWARDS THIS SYNAGOUE.
LIKEWISE FOR HIS MANY VALUABLE
PAST SERVICES RENCERED FOR A LONG TERM OF YEARS
AUGUST 10TH 5625/1863
Other then Cohen's memorial there are other tablet of historical interest. The upper half of a very finely inscribed plaque with the prayer for the Royal Family in English (with a Heading in Hebrew) is also leant against the wall. While the inscription looks at first glance to be very indistinct it can be read fairly clearly from an oblique angle and in the correct light.
PRAYER
FOR
THE ROYAL FAMILY
He who giveth salvation unto kings and dominion unto
princes whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom who
delivered his sevant David from the ------ sword who
maketh a way in the sea and a path in the mighty waves
[may he] bless guard and protect and..................
....................................................[?]
A foundation tablet fron the synagogue also survives set into the wall:
THIS SYNAGOGUE
BUILT
BY VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTIONS
B. NATHAN J.GRUNWALD
D.BARNARD H.POLACK
H.BARRAS B.LINDON
WAS
CONSECRATED
ON MONDAY 10th AUGUST 5625/1865
W, GRUNWALD A.J.VANDERLYN
PRESIDENT TREASURER
There are two additional memorial wall tablets, citing the involvement of the wives of two prominent men in the life of the Dover community. One to Judith Montefiori, the wife of the celebrated Sir Moses Montefiori, and the other to Priscilla Hart, the second wife of Henry Hart.
Within the area of burials there are a number of interments and tombs of interest. Starting from the rear, the graves of the victims of the W.A.Scholten are to be found in the second row down (B, 7-12). Only one memorial was raised to any of the six Jewish victims of the shipwreck, to Solomon Goldsmith, probably a passenger from the first class on the Scholten. The English reads 'In memory of / Solomon Goldsmith / who was drowned off Dover in the wreck of the W.A.Sholten / 31 November 1887 5648 / Ps 139 9-10 / may his soul rest in peace.'
The verses alluded to from Psalm 139 reads, 'If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.' This quotation aptly recalls that Goldsmith was probably bound as an settler to American and a poignant faith in the goodness of the hand of the Lord even in disaster...
This sole memorial belays the platitude that there is no social distinction in death. The other interments are the blank unmarked plots to either side of Goldsmith - mute testimony to the other victims.
In next row down (C, 13-14), just below the victims of the Scholten, lies the tombs of Henry Hart and his second wife Priscilla. Henry Hart's memorial gives honour to his status as honorary freeman of Canterbury. It is interesting to note that the decoration at the top of his tomb, a flower, perhaps recalls the emblem rose carved on his first wife's, Rosa's, tombstone at Canterbury. Thus while in death Hart lay by the side of his second wife, he had not forgotten his first laying in the quiet enclosure of Canterbury cemetery.
On the next row down, below, and to the right of the tomb of Henry Hart, near to the end of the row, the grave of Rabbi Barnstein (C, 19) can be found and notes his fifty years' leadership of the congregation.
At the foot of the slope there is a single chest tomb to Bloom, the wife of the Revd. R.I. Cohen. The tomb is very attractively designed and has a fine English and Hebrew inscription on either side. Bloom died '..in her 83d year after a useful and happy life...'. In this period being deemed to have led a 'useful life' was considered to be high praise indeed and reflects a peculiarly 19th century attitude to human existence. The monument was raised by the redoubtable daughters of R.I. Cohen who were mentioned earlier.
Keys to the cemetery, had at the time of our original visit, been placed in the hands of Hambrook & Johns, Undertakers, Beaconsfield Road, Dover, so as to provide access for visitors to the cemetery.
On returning to the centre of Dover remnants and sites of other places of interest can be located by the more dedicated.
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85. St George's Concert Hall -- Bridge Street
St George's Hall was built in 1853 and overlooks the end of Hall Ings. It is a fine neo-classical building by the architects Lockwood & Mawson. The interior of the building is distinguished by its loftiness which enables all the audience to feel close to the stage, though Charles Dickens felt that the stage was too narrow.The concert hall was built by the city's German merchants and it represents their cultural aspirations and civic philanthropy. The German Jews were particularly active in the building of the cultural venue, and Jacob Moser was a prominent supporter of the project.
The Jewish merchants were apparently responsible for bringing the Hall
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86. The Bishop's Palace
The Bishop's Palace is south down the hill of the Cathedral and is managed by English Heritage. It is documented in a contemporary chronicle that Chesney built the extensive Palace with money, a loan of £300, borrowed from Aaron of Lincoln, money which also contributed to his building of a Bishop's residence in London on the site of the Old Temple of the Knights Templar. This was thought to be one of his first loans and was secured on church plate and ornaments and had to be redeemed by one of his successors. The Palace complex is 12th century fortress and impressive cleric's home. It was also one of the most important buildings in the country as it was used to administer the 'super' diocese of medieval Lincoln which took in a vast swath of the country from the Humber to the Thames. The earliest record of the site was in a charter from the reign of King Stephen, 1135 -1138 when there may have been some sort of residence on the site. Chesney purchased the land and started building in c.1155. He built a hall range over an undercroft on the east side of the site (the Kitchen Court), though historians say that only the south wall can be, 'firmly attributed to Chesney' with Bishop Hugh taking over. Recent archeology shows that of the South Wall only a few elements actually date from Chesney's building work, as much was destroyed by the earth-quake in 1185. The surviving portions are thought to be the guardrobe at the eastern corner of the south wall, some of the footings between the guardrobe and the Kitchen Range and part of the south wall of the Kitchen Range itself. The Palace was then built in four phases, The Palace was sacked during the Civil War and then abandoned. It is accessed off Minster Yard, near the Cathedral.The Magna Carta
Lincoln Cathedral owns one of the original copies of the Magna Carta of 1215; the copy is usually on display to the public at the Castle, though at the time of writing it has been on display at the Cathedral. The Magna Carta is widely cited to be the basis of our 'unwritten' constitution, in so far it makes the following declaration of rights:
No freeman shall be taken, nor imprisoned, nor disseized, nor outlawed, nor exiled, nor destroyed in any manner; nor will we pass upon him, nor condemn him, but by the lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land. We will sell to none, we will deny nor delay to none right and justice.
In reality, its significance is largely to do with the struggle between the crown and barons -- it represented a temporary truce between the two warring sides. It had little to do with the mass of the population (for whom the contemporary Forest Charter of 1217 was of considerably greater importance, though it did develop clauses in the Magna Carta) but it did, crucially, recognize that there might be limits to the king's powers. This is the source of its importance to the development of our representative democracy. As for the Jews, the document was designed to prevent Jewish financiers taking land as forfeit for unpaid debts in particular circumstances. In reality, though, some of these debts may have been actually owed to the Crown, although ostensibly held by Jews. It would seem that the King was using the management of debts as a means of curbing baronial power and as a way of disenfranchising, or threatening to disenfrachise some of them. The sub-text of the clauses was that barons' need to borrow money sometimes left them heavily indebted, thus risking the loss of the lands that were the basis of their power.
Clauses 10 and 11, are the Jewish clauses of the Magna Carta.
(10) If anyone who has borrowed a sum of money from Jews dies before the debt has been repaid, his heir shall pay no interest on the debt for so long as he remains under age, irrespective of whom he holds his lands. If such a debt falls into the hands of the Crown, it will take nothing except the principal sum specified in the bond.
(11) If a man dies owing money to Jews, his wife may have her dower and pay nothing towards the debt from it. If he leaves children that are under age, their needs may also be provided for on a scale appropriate to the size of his holding of lands. The debt is to be paid out of the residue, reserving the service due to his feudal lords. Debts owed to persons other than Jews are to be dealt with similarly.
The fact that the Jewish clauses are little known in what is arguably our most famous historical document is illustrative of how the Jewish narrative in our national history has been muted.
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87. The ‘Jews Garden’ – Angel Lane and Fetter Street
After looking at Joel Moss’s premises, a short detour of some 150 yards can be made down Angel Lane to the junction of Angel Lane and Fetter Street. This block of land, backed by Guildhall Road was once garden land, but was built up with the Phipps Warehouse in the 19th Century, Phipps was a shoe mercers company.The ‘Northampton Independent’ Newspaper declared in 1939 that, ‘The cemetery [of the Jews] at Northampton was on the site of Messrs. Phipps and Son’s warehouse in the Guildhall Road and the site was called “The Jew’s Garden” within living memory.’
We now know that in fact the cemetery was outside the north gate of the town. There is no known Jewish association with the site, though this cannot be entirely discounted, as Jewish place-name traditions are good in about half of all cases. However, accounts of Jewish history in Northampton, in the 19th and 20th centuries are peppered with inaccurate guesses or wild folk-tradition about Jewish places and this may just be an interesting folk place name.
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88. Hatter Street - the medieval Jewish Quarter of Bury St Edmunds?
Hatter Street is not far from Moyses Hall. It is south of Abbeygate Street, on the way to the Abbey.Hatter Street is said to have been the medieval Jewish quarter of Bury St Edmunds. There is archeological evidence of superior stone houses in the 12th century in the street which would accord with the setting in which a Jewish community, responsible for banking, would be found.
The museum, in particular, preserves two very fine stone columns of the 12th century (now part of a fireplace in the museum undercroft) recovered from a property demolished in the 19th century. This could conceivable have come from a Jewish house. However, it is possible that part of Church Gate Street could have been the Jewry, as it was the main street in the medieval borough.
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89. Merton College
the Ascension Day Cross, Bek’s Hall and ‘the Counting House of Jacob the Jew’At the end of this immediate run of wall is a gate, at the junction of Merton and Corpus Christi Colleges, giving access to a path - Merton Grove, one of the most picturesque spots in Oxford, which itself gives access to Merton Street, and the entrance to Merton College itself.
On walking along this path, there is on the right, and over the railings, an area of grass at the back of the chapel - the site of the former college brew house and latrines - and running down to the Grove building. This was the area on which stood the infamous cross, built after the Ascension Day riot in 1268 when a Jew was accused of attacking a religious procession. The king ordered the Jewish community to pay for an elaborate marble cross to be set up opposite the synagogue. Eventually, he decided against this and had it set up in Merton College. It was, by all accounts, lavish; marble trimmed in gold with a crucified Jesus, and a representation of the Virgin Mary. There was, at the foot of the cross, an inscription in Latin condemning the ‘guilty’ Jews. The cross survived for 200 years.
Entering the front quadrangle of the college itself, and turning back to look at the front range of buildings, the building making up staircases 6 and 7, stands on the site of Bek's Hall, an academic residence let out by Jacob of London, a leading Jewish financier of his day. The original rectangular plot would have stretched south, with the house at the head, and would have reached what is now the site of the dining hall.
Bek's Hall was sold to Bishop Walter de Merton, the founder of Merton College, in a historic property deal, which meant that one of Oxford's Jews had participated in the foundation of Oxford's first true college. In 1266/7 the property was sold to the Bishop by an increasingly infirm Jacob. The contract (or starr) survives, and is written in both Latin by a scribe, and in Hebrew in the shaky and weak hand of Jacob. It is the oldest collegiate document that survives.
Going through the corner of the front quad, and turning right into the famous Mob Quad, the famous ‘counting house of Jacob the Jew', also known as the Muniment Room of Merton, can be seen.
This is the old college strong room. It has a very unusual steep pitched ashlar roof, containing a stone vaulted security chamber, approached through a stair turret - but the vault is not open to visitors. The building could have conceivably been used by Jacob as a security room, but it is more likely to be a college strong room, as these elsewhere are also on upper floors, whereas Jewish strong rooms where usually fortified stone basements, underneath a dwelling. Just to complicate matters, the stone corner of a 12th-century house is preserved in a pit under the manhole cover just yards away and could potentially be the real source of the tradition. This building, predating Merton College, is angled at about 45 degrees to modern day Mob Quad and the Church behind, and indicates a different configuration of early properties on the site altogether. The 14th-century culvert discovered in 1992, in the Grove, about 100 yards away, has a similar orientation suggesting that open water-courses dictated the course of developments.
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90. Site of New Briggate Synagogue - New Briggate / Merrion Street
The New Briggate Synagogue, the second largest in Leeds, in the early part of the 20th century, was on the site of the mock Tudor building in New Briggate / Merrion Street. It closed in 1927.Top
91. The Judith Montefiori College
The Judith Montefiori College - Yeshiba Ohel Moshe ve-Yehoodit (the Yeshiva of the Tent of Moses and Judith)In 1860 Sir Moses brought 5 acres of land next to the synagogue on which to build his memorial college to his late wife. The college was designed by Henry Davis F.R.I.B.A. (1838-1915). The foundation stone was laid in 1865 by Sir Moses and its deeds signed in 1866. The total estate, with the synagogue and Mausoleum, was just over 8 acres in extent, and was made into a trust to be administered by a body of trustees, who were all members of his family. The actual administration of the synagogue and College was made over to the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation - though Sir Moses retained full rights over his organisation during his life-time.
The building was a Tudor pastiche with a red brick facade. There was a central block with the main facilities, a fine Library and Reading Room on the ground and a lecture hall on the top floor. The college was arranged in a crescent. To each of the sides were five residences for the scholars. Under one of the houses was included a mikveh for use in the community.
The choice of ten houses and scholars was to correspond with the number of a Jewish minyan so that the college could worship daily at the synagogue with a quorum, as well as to pursue their theological study. The college was planned in its deeds of foundation in 1866, to be a traditional yeshiva on the model of Palestine and Eastern Europe. The daily timetable was to be suitably rigorous, including the midnight prayers that were still offered until early this century.
Unsurprisingly not all the candidates were up to the demands and the regime has to be ameliorated! In fact the college was to eventually become a rest home for elderly Jewish scholars. Also this sort of regime created friction with the Spanish and Portuguese Elders in London, since the traditional Sephardi house of studies in London was virtually defunct and apparently unvalued.
After the death of Sir Moses in 1885, it was decided to merge the interests and remains of the London House of studies with the Montefiori College and to use the College to train ministerial students. This caused difficulty as the Elders wanted to keep Dr. Loewe on as principal and evidently Dr. Lowe was loyal to the original vision of the college that Sir Moses had given to him to direct. The death of Dr Lowe in 1888 and the paying off and retirement of the remaining three collegiates paved the way to the reform. The new arrangements were implemented in the same year and the college was actually in operation by 1890.
Unfortunately the new seminary proved to be flawed and internal disputes led to it being closed as according to the words of Sir Joseph, '[it] was not found to answer the expectations entertained of it'. Only two students received their degree of Rabbi. The Anglo-Jewish year book of 1896 noted that the college was temporarily closed and no other mention of the Ramsgate community was made.
Afterwards in 1896-7 it was seriously suggested that the college should amalgamate with Jews' College and perhaps subsequently with Aria College as well. While this was not adopted, closer ties were established, in 1897, between Judith Montefiori College and Jews' College. This was such that an annual payment of surplus funds and loans of surplus library stock from Montefiori could go to Jews' College. Also, Elders of the Spanish and Portuguese could elect representatives to the Council of Jews' College. This lead to a fruitful arrangement, spanning many years.
With the hiving off of the training of students to Jews' College; Judith Montefiori College was reformed as a yeshiva again. After the Second World War it proved difficult to get sufficient collegiates and in 1952 the College became a training college for North African Jews. However Jews' College took over its functions and in 1961 the college was demolished.
The remaining books of the former college library, are now at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies at Yarnton Manor, Oxford and evidence a wide span of traditional and contemporary scholarship covered by the original library. The OCHJS will also be receiving an exceptionally important collection of Montefiori memorabilia from Switzerland to compliment the diaries of Lady Judith Montefiori, which it has already.
In the last few years there has been considerable wrangling and legal disputes over the future of the site and plans for it. It was evident that something needed to be done about the empty terraces and former lawns of the estate and to preserve the synagogue and mausoleum for the future. The trustees proposed selling off land to fund a new visitor centre and caretaker's flat, next to the synagogue. They were permitted to do this by the charity commissioners and in 2007 a new 'Montefiori medical centre' was opened on the site. However, at the same time the ultra-orthodox community has made some claim to the site, which has become important to them. In 2007, a north London businessman, Samuel Berger, succeeded in buying land adjacent to the site and touted plans to settle an ultra-Orthodox (Satmar) community of 150 families in Ramsgate and to revive the college on the site. The latter proposal, was argued by Berger to completely honour the wishes of the Will of Moses Montefiore, but was rejected by the trustees of the estate. This matter is still not resolved, but high-lights the complexities of the site and how best to plan for its future and preserve its heritage.
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92. The site of the Second Synagogue - Corn Street
The site of the second synagogue is now entirely occupied by the Technical College, across from the end of Hot Bath Street. Corn Street is on the other side of the block of land taken up by the college.The second synagogue was purpose built, in 1842, but in a poor and depressed neighbourhood. The money was provided in the will of Moses Samuel, the founder of the first synagogue, who died in 1839. It was raised in memorial of Mr. Samuel.
The map evidence and only photographic record of the buildings, shows a modest stone structure, in a Gothic Style, intruded into a terraced residential street. Its main exterior feature was a single, large Gothic window to the street, elevated over the entry. The buildings were quite low; the top of the roof line was only just above the top of the adjacent first floor level of the next house. The building was of very modest dimensions, being nearly square, with a facade of 32 feet and a rear extension of 30 feet.
In terms of its position, the synagogue lay between the Lower Borough Walls (the site of the medieval city walls) and the River Avon. Significantly the synagogue lies just outside the old ward boundary which ran like a fault line through the buildings of the area. This is a pattern followed by a number of synagogues, which are built outside old civic boundaries.
The synagogue fell out of use by 1874. In 1876 the congregation appealed for funds for its restoration, in an attempt to restart the community. This fresh move to restart the community was under the influence of a rabbi who had retired to Bath from Cardiff in 1872. Their plaintive advert in the Jewish Chronicle ran as follows;
'The members of the Bath Congregation (consisting unfortunately of only four families) APPEAL to the generosity of their co-religionists in London and the larger towns to assist them in their effort they are now making to RE-OPEN the SYNAGOGUE which... has been closed for many years and is now in a most dilapidated state and will require a large outlay to put into decent condition for the holding of Divine Service. Considerable repairs are required to the walls and house of the Bet Hayyim [house of life] cemetery, which is in a condition that cannot be other than painful to any co-religionist who might visit it. The Synagogue is almost destitute of the necessary appurtenances for conducting Divine Service with decency...
A. J. GOLDSMITH, President
2 Sydney Buildings, Bath
And
S. AARON, Honorary Secretary
6, Broad Street, Bath.'
The synagogue was restarted by 1880, with the help of 'minyan men' from Bristol. However, it fell on hard-times again very soon after as 'an occasional visitor', complaining to the Jewish Chronicle, found the synagogue was largely defunct by 1881.
The acting president, Nathan Jacobs, explained in their defence, that there were only five in the congregation, of which two were always absent; one was blind, though they did send to Bristol for their minyan men! It would seem that they only arranged for a periodic minyan at best. By the next year, 1882, it looks as if the synagogue had largely given up after a disastrous flood, as there were no recorded minutes.
In 1894 the Chief Rabbi visited the community after the death of Nathan Jacobs and had cause to reflect on the woeful lack of Jewish education for children. Further travails came when in the same year, the synagogue was badly damaged again in floods, though some London business men paid for repairs - it is stated that the synagogue finally fell out of use by 1903, when it was used as a marine store. The building was derelict by 1911 and was taken over by St Paul's Church. In 1938 the building was compulsory purchased by the council and redeveloped as part of the Technical College.
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93. Schiller Institute (Schiller Verein) - Darley Street
The Schiller Institute was the club for the German speaking elite of Bradford, which included the German Jews. The building was leased by the German community from 1862 for a number of years, until they gave up the lease and it became a masonic hall and in1910, the Oddfellows Society.There is still a sculpture above the top middle window of the German poet and dramatist, Friedrich Von Schiller (1759-1805), which recalls its hey-day as the centre for the German community.
Present day Darley Street, is off Duke Street, next to the Kirkgate Shopping Centre in the city centre.
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94. Lincoln Castle
The Castle itself is of specific Jewish interest since it provided an official refuge for Jews in troubled periods and the Jews were under the official protection of the Constable of the castle. Furthermore, the Jewish community was administered by officials at the Castle, usually the Constable and the Sheriff, with the official financial records of the community being kept in the Chirograph chest at the Castle and which could only be accessed when certain Jewish and Christian officials and witnesses were present.The Jewish community took shelter in the Castle in 1190, when they were attacked by returning Crusaders. However, a contemporary chronicler reported that the local Jews got wind of the attack in advance and headed for the castle with their money; consequently when the attackers arrived the wind went out of their attack soon on when it was clear that there was little to be looted.
Lincoln Castle also normally houses and displays the copy of the 1215 Lincoln Magna Carta in the Victorian prison building of the Castle.
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95. 15 The Drapery – The Shop and Residence of E.E. Freedman (1885)
E.E. Freedman was a tailor and out-fitter and appears to have been a successful business man in one of the prime shopping streets in Northampton. He is an interesting character, as in 1885 a preacher of St Giles and a missionary to the Jews, claimed in the press that he was both a nephew of Moses Montefiore and that he was a sincere Christian and that seven out eleven members of his family were converts. Freedman publicly repudiated all of this in the newspapers.Two years later, just before Christmas, Freedman provided 1,000 of the poorest children in Northampton a free breakfast, which was supplied in batches of 200 over five days. This greatly impressed the local church as the curate of St Katherine’s, ‘…besought the Divine blessing on Mr. Freedman’s good work and labour of love’.
Number 15 is now a restaurant half-way up the Drapery on the west side between, what is currently Macdonald’s and Oxfam - the original shop was the left-hand division of the building.
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96. Stars of David at the Abbey tower - The Abbey of St Edmund
The Abbey Tower is found close to the end of Abbeygate Street, off Angel Hill.High up on the gate of Abbey are two Stars of David. Tradition relates that they are there because Jews contributed to the rebuilding of the Abbey after it was destroyed by fire.
Benedict of Norwich did fund the rebuilding of the Monk's Hall in the period when the Jews were in good favour with the monastery. Thus, there may be substance in this claim.
Of course, to the contrary it may be stated that the original Norman Tower was rebuilt in the period c.1330-80 after a riot caused serious damage. Therefore, it is not contemporary with the community, though it is not known if it copied decorative elements of its predecessor. Additionally the Star of David does have a traditional Christian use which is unrelated to Jewish building projects - the plain six-pointed star is a symbol of the creator, the intersected star, the sign of the Trinity.
One piece of Abbey decoration that is hardly philo-semitic, but is nearly contemporary with the Bury Jewish community is a sculpture of a soul in torment dating from c.1140. The soul in question is that of a usurer - he is standing holding a bag of coins, beset by demons, in the mouth of Hell. One may imagine that the sinner in question is Jewish.
The piece originally came form the West Front of the Abbey, but was later placed in a niche in the Norman Tower. It is now in the undercroft of the museum at Moyses Hall, next to the fireplace.
The site of the ruined abbey with its surviving elements of the refectory and dormitory can still be traced within the grounds. If the Abbey is entered through the Abbey Gateway, the remains of the Great Hall or refectory (with the abbuting and adjoining dormitory) are indicated in the Abbey Gardens. It lay on the west side of the cloister (the dormitory on another side) and the shape of the cloister is still laid out on the ground. The refectory was no doubt the 'Hall; that was rebuilt with money provided by Benedict of Norwich.
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97. Christ Church Meadow and Deadman's Walk
The Path of Jewish funeral processions.On entering Christ Church Meadow through the gate at Rose Lane and turning right, the path quickly reaches the old south east corner of the medieval city walls, and follows the wall and the back of Merton College. This path is called Deadman's Walk, and is, by tradition, the path that Jewish funeral processions took from the Jewry to their ‘Jew's Garden’. The tradition is supported by the fact that it is the most direct route to the cemetery from the Jewry, and would have avoided any difficulties presented by processing through the city centre. But against this picturesque tradition, repeated by the historian Cecil Roth, is the fact that they would have had to cross two wide water courses (which I have seen partly excavated) running up to arches in the foot of Merton College wall, one of which was big enough for the passage of a rowing boat! Perhaps there were bridges.
Whatever the truth, the name has nothing to do with the Jewish funeral processions, or even the Royalist spies alleged to have been shot against the wall. It is almost certainly an adapted ancient field name, relating to a tumulus (a burial mound) not far off in the Meadow.
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98. Site of First Leeds Synagogue - Merrion Centre
Proceeding to the Merrion Centre, a Civic Trust plaque can be seen on the side of a staircase to mark site of first Leeds synagogue, in a converted house, in Back Rockingham Street, 1846.The plaque was placed at the time of the 150th anniversary of the synagogue in December 1996. In 1851, a religious census revealed that 35 people attended Sabbath morning service on 29th March in that year. 25 marriages are entered in its marriage register from 1846 to 1860, when the congregation moved to Belgrave Street.
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99. The Assembly Rooms - Bennet Street
The Assembly Rooms can be reached by returning to Abbey Square and then crossing west via Cheap Street, Westgate Street and then turning northwards up Barton Street and finally Gay Street, before the Circus is reached. Bennet Street and also the Assembly Rooms are directly off the north-eastern exit off the Circus. The Assembly Rooms lie directly across the street to the right at the nearest end of Bennet Street to the Circus.One of the focuses of social life in Georgian Bath was at the Assembly Rooms, nearby the Circus, another landmark of the city. It is not surprising; therefore, that many Jews would attend social functions at the rooms. Interestingly one of the original shareholders of the rooms was Joseph Salvador, a Jew. The assembly rooms were built in 1771, by Wood the Younger, but were gutted by fire in the Baedeker Raids of 1942 and reopened in 1963. The Ball Rooms and State Rooms can be seen decorated in late 18th Century style.
The rooms were also used for Jewish marriages; the last Jewish marriage in Bath being there is 1901. Occasional religious services were also held there, after the turn of the century, by Reuben Somers, a master tailor who lived in Bath from the 1880s to 1929, thus the rooms were of importance in the closing stages of the Jewish communities life.
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100. Mill House
Mill house was a built in 1901 to provide accommodation for the Rev, H. Shandel and designed by Hinds & Son. It last use was in the 1960s when the Lubavitch leased Mill House for their activities and it was used for holidays and retreats. The Mill House had nine rooms and stood south of the main gate to the estate. Stanley Kinn was resident on the estate from 1964-8 and ran activities until 1973. Mill House was demolished in the late 1970s after it had fallen out of use and deteriorated.East Cliff Lodge, St Lawrence Parish - The Home of Moses Montefiori, now George IV Park
Moses Montefiori brought East Cliff Lodge in 6 April, 1831, from the estate of the late Patrick Cummings. The lodge cost the princely sum of £5,500 and had 24 acres of estates attached.
The house dated from 1794 and was built in a heavily crenellated Gothic style for Benjamin Hopkins and was designed by a Mr. Bocey of Margate. The house was built around a quadrangle and included the famous Gothic Library, where Sir Moses spent much of his time, as well as the exceptionally fine dining room. In 1803 Queen Caroline used it as a summer villa.
In 1804, it was brought by Viscount Elphinstone, who was then Admiral Lord Keith. The Admiral found the house a useful place to sally forth to the Channel Squadron, which protected the coastline and downs, especially as he had special galleries and underground passages built down to the sea as well as a private jetty. He also had distinguished visitors including Pitt, and the Duke of Wellington.
He also had an Italianate Greenhouse made in 1805 against the stable block wall. This green-house was later to be used by Judith Montefiori and for many years during and after her time provided the flowers for the synagogue, particularly at Shavuot, when there were 'banks' of fresh flowers on display.
In 1814, a Russia merchant, Patrick Cummings brought the house. He was subsequently to lease it to Marquis Wellesley, the brother of Wellington. Finally Moses Montefiore leased the house, but was unable to buy it until after the decease of Patrick Cummings in 1830.
Montefiori was to entertain some very distinguished guests at his home. These included the young Queen Victoria, then Princess Victoria. She played on the lawns there and had a special gilt key to a door of the grounds.
Montefiori died at East Cliff Lodge, and indeed his taharah (ritual ablution of the deceased) was performed in one of the libraries down stairs. The old philanthropist also lay in his favourite room the Gothic Library before his interment. After the death of Sir Moses; Sir Joseph Sebag Montefiore (his nephew and chief mourner) became the resident of the lodge. Sir Joseph (b. 1822) was the son of Sir Moses' eldest surviving sister, Sarah and effectively became the successor of Moses Montefiori.
The house and grounds survived until quite recent times. However the sale of the house to the Borough was to prove fatal for the lodge. In 1954 - an era when big houses were unfashionable - the house was raised to the ground as the council did not want to maintain it and protect it against vandals.
Today the gate-house lodge of the house is still standing. This is in the same Gothic style as the original house. The earthworks of the terrace around the house and some of the steps still survive and some of the various levels of the former lawns are there too. The rare early green house, used by Judith Montefiori, also survives and is preserved, though local children seem to think that throwing stones at the early 19th century glass is deeply rewarding. There are also some other out-buildings and walls.
The remains of the house are at the east end of George IV Park and can be reached by a walk across the park from the end of East Cliff Road. The approach from town is to go east along the Promenade to the gates of the park. Alternatively one can travel east along Hereson Road, towards Dumpton Park and then turn right (south) down Montefiori Avenue.
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101. Arensberg's Jewellery Shop -- Ivegate
The former Arensberg Jewellry shop, half-way up the steep hill which forms Ivegate, and still survives as part of a larger more modern jewellers.The original firm of jewellers was established in 1860, by Henry Arensberg and his son Louis at the bottom of the old Post Office Steps in Hustlergate.
Henry at this time was already a cigar merchant in Market Street and Louis worked with a Sheffield firm. The business flourished opening branches all over the city and in Motley and Rochdale, the headquarters were at 68 70 Leeds Road, adjacent to Little Germany.
In 1899 Arensberg's moved to 32 Ivegate and although the shop front was altered in 1913 and though extended in 1934, it kept to its original design.
The last Arensberg to own the shop was Merton Henry's grandson. Merton was a bachelor and in the 1960s he sold the business to his manager and it passed out of Jewish ownership, but remained a jewellery business. It is currently Herbert Brown jewellers.
The original shop frontage survived into the 1980s, but the modern owners removed the original signage at the very front. However, vitally, they retained the original bay arcade and the door from the original shop which dates from 1900.
These are of exceptional interest, as the mohagany door still has the Arensberg name in guilded letters on the glass of the door, with the date of the foundation of the business in 1860 and the Arensberg name is also in mosaic letters in the floor of the bay arcade.
These survivals of original Victorian and Jewish shop signage are very rare and need to be preserved. The current owners of the shop said that they had kept these old features because they still had many people coming to visit the shop for nostalgic reasons, as many of their grand-parents had brought their engagement and wedding rings from the shop and it was nice for them to still see the original name.
Ivegate is an easterly extension of Westgate, and is close to the corner of the Kirkgate Shopping Centre.
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102. The site of Aaron of Lincoln House and Property -- 26 -- 34 Steep Hill, Castle Hill and Lincoln Castle
It is now known that Aaron of Lincoln owned all of the property between from what is now 23 -- 34 Steep Hill opposite the Castle gate and ditch. Furthermore his house was actually in the Bail of the Castle, which would have placed it near the Castle gateway or on the road leading to it. After his death it became the official residence of the Constable of the Castle or at least was used for official purposes by the Constable. The presence of his house at the Castle itself attests to his status and importance as well as his link to the Crown, no doubt aided by the fact that Aaron also lent direct to the State.Top
103. Sheep Street, and Northampton Corporation Fish Market - the medieval Jewry, the site of the synagogue and Dr Doddridge’s Dissenting Academy.
To find the medieval Jewry, continue up to the top of the Drapery which leads directly into Sheep Street. The former Jewry is on the left (west) side of Sheep Street past the junction of Bradshaw Street and up hill from the former Fish Market. The Fish Market forms the rear south boundary of the site of the old Jewry, and the row of older town houses, terminating in the Bear pub, forms the front of the area. The back of the Jewry was defined by the old line of Silver Street which was rather further to east than the modern line of the street. The old line of the street would roughly bisect Bradshaw lane as it ran northwards.The Jewry apparently formed a small and loose enclave of housing on about a half an acre on slightly rising ground. This was an area (rather than a street) formerly called the ‘Parmentry’ in the middle-ages. It is possible that the derivation of ‘Parmentry’ is from ‘parchmentry’ denoting where the ‘parchmenters’ made parchment from animal skins.
In modern day Winchester, there is a ‘Parchment Street’ which was formerly the ‘Parmentry’ in the middle ages. If so, it may hint at a former distinctive trade in parchment preparation in the Jewry. In the 12th and 13th Century the production of books and the demand for parchment rose considerably for secular use and was no longer solely a monastic occupation. Vitally the production of parchment was in great demand and became secularised and may have provided Jews who had their own tradition of book production in a position to produce parchment.
There were probably some fifteen Jewish properties, in the Jewry, including the synagogue, three communal buildings and private and rented dwellings. There were a few out-laying properties over-looking or close to the Jewry in Bereward Street, and perhaps Sheep Street and Cornhill.
The site of the medieval synagogue was just north (above) the Market, approximately under the site of the southern house, of the row of houses, nearest the corner of the street (the junction with Bradshaw Street) and the main entrance to the market.
The synagogue was as far as can be deduced, a very substantial building, with a high roof line. It was by far the most valuable property in the Jewry being worth at the expulsion at £1 - 0s. 9d. and one pound of cumin a year. Henry Lee’s description of the building as a ‘stately hall’ from before the Great fire of Northampton, has already been given, but additionally a map of 1632 that appears to have an inset Elizabethan birds eye view of the town centre, seems to show the former synagogue building in the centre of the Parmentry.
The site of the high-status property probably belonging to Pictavinus son of Sampson, called ‘Bello Fronte’ in a 1504 rental, can also be located in modern Sheep Street. It more-or-less occupies the area of triangular traffic island that allows traffic to turn left into Greyfriars.
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104. Bungay (c.1154-90)
Bungay is west of Lowestoft and Beccles and was a classic rural Jewish settlement in the lee of the Bigod castle. The Bungay community was almost certainly established by 1154 and its presence is confirmed by the donum of 1159. In the donum, they contributed four percent of the burden and ranked seventh in the list. Some Jews were dispersed from Bungay in c.1174 when Hugh de Bigod was punished by Henry II for his part in an insurrection. The community was finally dispersed by c.1190 during anti-Jewish episodes.It is known that there was a Joseph of Bungay who was a member of a Jewish mystical (and ascetic) group in the Middle Ages. There was also a Meir of Bungay.
Bungay is today a village of about 4,000 inhabitants. The visitor can see the remains of Hugh de Bigod's castle. The keep and the forebuilding (c.1165) still survive and are impressive. There is a network of paths around the town (the Bigod Way) and all the historic sites will be indicated on an heritage trail, (to be E.C. funded).
Also of considerable interest is the fact that excavations in the late 1990s, near the boundary of the castle, have revealed the remains of a stone house of c.13th century. This is an unusual rural find, especially as it is outside of the castle. The house had very deep footings and was substantial building. It was close to the boundary of the castle and not far off the market and the south gate. It has been speculated that this could have been a Jewish house, as its earliest date could perhaps have coincided with the Jewish settlement in Bungay. The archaeologists have had difficulties to explain what this building could otherwise have been.
If this is possibly the remains of a Jewish house it could reveal vital information about a very obscure aspect of Anglo-Jewish life. The property would be in exactly the position that one would anticipate a Jewish property to be, ie. close to the castle and the main commercial activity and markets.
During my reseach, my informant from Bungay museum told me about "Jewish Graves" in St Mary's Churchyard in Bungay. These headstones have a Star of David on them, though as yet I have no information about their date or actual provenance - Jewish or otherwise.
There were also more modern Jewish residents of Bungay. Moses Samuel kept a shop in the village from 1792-1807. On his removal to Ipswich, his nephew Simon Aaron took over the shop for a period. That Jews lived and traded in a village at this early point was an unusual occurance.
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105. St Aldates or Great Jewry Street
The synagogue, Talmudic academy and Jewish halls.On leaving Merton, St Aldates and the old Jewry can be reached by returning to the meadow, and following the wall, and the boundary of Christ Church westward - by far the most pleasant route. Alternatively, more rapid progress can be made via Oriel Square, and thence left into Bear Lane and Blue Boar Street.
Going via Christ Church Meadow, St Aldates is reached through the Memorial Gardens. Heading up the street an impression of the former Jewish quarter can be gained. St Aldates stands on the ground rising to Carfax, up from the Norman bridge of Grandpont (the remains of which are incorporated into Folly Bridge) and the former marsh and flood plains of the Thames or Isis. The junction with Brewer Street marks the old South Gate of the city and, indeed, the retaining wall of Pembroke College in Brewer Street is part of the original city wall leading away from the gate.
Jewish properties started from here with the poorest properties and moving up the hill, with the majority, and the most superior houses (or halls as they were called) being concentrated at the head of the street where Carfax, the old Saxon centre of the city, is formed. Other Jewish houses were found in immediately adjacent streets, Pembroke Street (Penny-farthing Street) to the west and on Jury Lane (south of modern day Blue Boar Street) in an associated ‘poor Jewry’.
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106. Site of first purpose-built Leeds synagogue (1860) - Belgrave Street
In Belgrave Street there is a Civic Trust plaque on an office building to mark the site of first custom-built Leeds synagogue 1860. It was rebuilt in 1877/78 and became the 'cathedral' synagogue in Leeds with the grand title of 'Great Synagogue'. It closed in 1983. It was also the site of the establishment of the Jewish Board of Guardians in 1878 (today known as the Jewish Welfare Board.Top
107. Moses Samuel's House - 42 St James' Square
St James' Square is to be found just north of and to the rear of the Royal Crescent, off Crescent Street, via St James' Street, which joins Crescent Street. It can be reached from the Circus by taking Brock Street and Upper Church Street.Moses Samuel was one of the central figures in establishing an organised Jewish community in Bath and was central in the provision of both of the Bath synagogues. While best known as the parnas of the Great Synagogue, he had actually made his money in the clothing trade, after coming to England from Krotoschin.
Samuel lived at St James' Square from 1812 and his house is in the center of a terrace of elegant Georgian houses on the south side of St James' Square.
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108. Temple Cottage
Temple cottage appears to have been built in 1837 to replace an earlier cottage and originally provided accommodation for ministers at the synagogue, firstly the brothers, the Revs. Isaac and Emanual Myers. Isaac Myers had been referred to as the 'chaplain' of Sir Moses Montefiori and his brother was Secretary and Registrar for marriages and acted as schochet. The original was divided into two, a house and a smaller cottage. Isaac Meyers ran a school, for both Jews and Christians. It eventually was reformed and called the Ramsgate Middle Class School with Myers as the Principal. His brother, Emanual, next door ran his own school, 'The Temple Cottage Academy' (est. 1854). It too was later renamed, the 'Hereson House Academy', and was attended by the children of local Sephardim.It was rebuilt in 1891 to provide accommodation for Rev. Belasco, the chazan for the congregation.
The cottage was demolished in the 1960s following its dereliction and vandalism. The cottage stood about halfway down the access drive to the synagogue from Hereson Road
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109. Rabbi Cohen's School (Sussex House Academy For Jews) And Mount Ellis - Westmount, Folkestone Road
After exiting Snargate Street and turning back towards the centre of Dover on the A20 and turning left into York Street and then left again onto the Folkestone Road (B2011), the site of Rabbi Cohen's School is approached as well as the surviving residence of J.J. Ellis.The site of the school is on the right of the Folkestone Road. It is someway after the Railway Station. Westmount is after the junction of St John's Road and before Winchelsea Road. The present buildings are set back from the road on top of a prominent slope and are now Dover Adult Education Centre, run by Kent County Council.
The present main building on the site, is the original Mount Ellis, the brick four-storied mansion of Joseph Ellis refered to earlier and which R.I.Cohen opened in 1865.
Despite the fact that its grandure is a little decayed, it would have been a substantial and imposing house in its day, befitting a wealthy businessman. The foundation stone that R.I.Cohen helped to lay, can still be found in an outer buttress wall on the right hand side of the property, near to the frontage. It is below the immediate ground level as part of the lower ground floor. The inscription is much eroded but one can just make out 'LAID [BY] J J ELLIS...' but the rest is almost perished. It seems that after Ellis' death the building reverted back to educational use. By 1898 'Mount Ellis' had become 'Westmount' and was the junior branch of Dover College.
As to Cohen's school, it lay approximately lengthways, across the north-south axis of right-hand side of the present site of West Mount, with its frontage closer to the road than the present Westmount. It consisted of a main building to the front, with a small extension wing to the east, widening the frontage, and with an annex laying across to the rear. There was according to the OS maps, a tree-lined garden to the front, and a play-ground at the left-hand rear corner of the site. The buildings were considerable larger than the other houses in the vicinity as might be expected with well in excess of 50 residents and pupils at the school.
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110. Jacob Behrens - Springfield Mount, North Parade (1880)
Behrens first lived in Manchester, at 35 Brown Street, then Chancery Lane (1840), then Leeds Road Bradford (1850). His most identifiable residence in Bradford was Springfield Mount; North Parade is off Manor Row, just before the Drewton Road, near to the city centre.Top
111. The Norman House - 46 & 47, Steep Hill
On leaving the Cathedral, walk towards the medieval castle and Castle Hill, passing through the Exchequer Gate. Steep Hill is then directly to the left with the rest of the Jewish sites.The Norman House is the first to be reached, on the junction of Steep Hill with Christ's Hospital Terrace and perhaps has Jewish associations. The house is thought to originate from 1170-80. It is a Norman hall with a semi-sunken under-croft. The building still preserves some original Norman fabric. The entrance and first floor window (the latter rediscovered and then restored and repositioned) on the west front are the best preserved parts of the building, though there are some interior Norman features. The barrel-vaulted undercroft, at eight feet high, is well preserved. By 1898 the structure was home to no less than five families! The rest of the building had also by then been sub-divided into a warren of rooms. It has been claimed that Aaron the Jew lived in the house; but in reality, he probably lived further up the hill in the Bail. Thus it is only tradition that attests to a Jewish occupancy of the house, though recently other Jewish names have been suggested for the site. There is, though, no reason to doubt that a Jew could have, or did in fact, live in it.
Another tradition had it that the Jew's cemetery was across the road from the house; but this is probably unlikely as most Jewish burial grounds were outside the town walls.
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112. Sheep Street – Hebrew Study at Dr Doddridge’s Dissenting Academy
Opposite the former Jewry is a row of shops in sandstone, on the junction of Sheep Street with Greyfriars, which is the remains of Dr Philip Dodderidge’s Dissenting Academy. The current buildings represent the surviving top half of the academy. Dodderidge (1702 – 1751) was a non-Conformist who set up his academy for lay students among his co-religionists. It provided a modern curriculum to prepare his students for commerce, or life as a gentlemen, as well as being soundly spiritual. The study of Hebrew was also serious element of the curriculum, some 84 lessons being provided each year, and each morning during prayers a student would read a chapter of the Old Testament in the Hebrew, translating as he went along, with Dodderidge giving an exposition! Dodderidge also lectured on Jewish antiquities.Top
113. Thetford (north of Bury St Edmunds)
The Thetford community was established by 1154 and is revealed in the Donum of 1159. They contributed eight percent of the amount and were ranked sixth in the list. Hugh de Bigod had his own mint at Thetford.David the Moneyer lived at Thetford and was responsible for the mint. It is probable that he would have lived close to it. There was also a Jacob of Thetford, a witness of a deed in 1265.
Thetford is a small town which still retains a number of remains of its medieval past, from three of its monastic organisations. Castle Hill is an exceptionally fine Norman motte.
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114. The Medieval Synagogue
Tom Quad, Christ ChurchThe site of the former synagogue is the first major feature of the Jewry to be reached, as the slight hill is climbed. It was on the right of the street, opposite Pembroke Street, where the north-west corner tower of Christ Church's famous Tom Quad is now sited. It was almost certainly somewhat to the rear of its original street frontage (which was forward of the modern college frontage); it may have been on the site of the modern Cannon’s Lodgings on the north side of Tom Quad, described by my former tutor as his ‘eight-bedroomed hovel’.
The synagogue was founded circa 1228 by Copin of Worcester, a wealthy benefactor. It has generally been assumed that it was not a purpose built structure, but rather it was an existing town house adopted for the purpose. All of these houses in Oxford were long narrow rectangular affairs, with a narrow street fronts.
Cecil Roth thought the synagogue would have been in an upper room at the back, well away from the street and from unwanted attention. However, recent evidence from other locations suggests that a purpose built cellar or semi-subterranean structure in a similar back street location should also be considered as a possibility.
The street frontage would have had a shop or shops, and the cellar could have been a tavern. The access to the synagogue itself would have been through a narrow passage or entry - archaeological remains of narrow lanes across Tom Quad were excavated in 2005 and one roughly cobbled example I have seen on the north side of the quad, may well have led to the synagogue and resounded to the sound of Jewish feet. Examples of these types of entries still survive on the south side of the High Street.
After the expulsion, the synagogue at the rear of the property became Burnel’s Inn (subsequently called the Dolphin and then the Pike), with shops attached to the front half of the property that could be let separately to the inn. While the general position of the synagogue can be surmised, its exact position is harder to determine.
However, in a document of 1367, Balliol claimed ownership of a certain wall next to the ‘Broadegates … formerly called the synagogue of the Jews’, in the parish of St Aldates'. Interestingly, this claim gives us a glimpse of the synagogue, and helps to position the synagogue more exactly. The wall lay between the former synagogue on the south side and the property of Edmund de Ludlow on the north. The wall was 79½ feet in length and 1½ feet in width and extending ‘even to the higher gable of the said synagogue’ and that one end of the wall originated from another tenement held by Balliol, in the parish of St Edward, presumably just to the east.
This enables us to deduce that the end of the synagogue was on the very edge of St Aldate’s Parish and less than 80 feet from the adjacent parish of St Edward and could have been on the parish boundary of St Edward’s parish itself, depending on where the other end of the wall originated from in St Edward’s. Furthermore, it seems likely that the synagogue was not a lofty building on the exterior, as a boundary wall on 1½ foot foundations was unlikely to exceed 12-16 feet and could well have been lower. This tends to suggest that the upper room theory is less likely.
In the end, the former synagogue was completely swept way, when Wolsey and his men took the former synagogue and its site from Balliol, to make space for his ambitious and grand Cardinal’s college. However, the recent excavations in the terrace running around Tom Quad have shown that medieval archeology survives in this raised area as Wolsey’s builders had no need to dig it up. This means that there is at least a possibility of some archeological remains of the synagogue being found in the future. Otherwise, the only relic of the synagogue is the stained glass given to Balliol in informal compensation for the site.
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115. Herman Friend's tailoring workshop - Vicar Lane / Lady Lane
On the corner of Vicar Lane and Lady Lane, is the site of the erstwhile West Yorkshire bus station, but it also marks the earlier site of the Leeds Workhouse later occupied by tailoring workshop owned by Herman Friend, who helped to found the wholesale tailoring industry in Leeds.He worked as an outworker for John Barran who did not allow Jews to work in his factory. Barran had introduced the band knife for the multiple cutting of cloth and Friend in his workshop adapted the divisional labour system to tailoring -- breaking the process up into various parts that an unskilled worker could quickly learn.
Both these developments coincided with the introduction of the sewing machine in the 1850's and enabled the establishment of the very large mens' tailoring industry in Leeds, in which its Jews were heavily involved. Friend encouraged his fellow Jews in Russia to come to Leeds where there was plenty of work in tailoring.
Many of his employees eventually set up workshops of their own and thus the Jewish contribution to the industry, and the Jewish community, grew. In the 1891 census as many as 72% of the listed occupations of the Jews were in tailoring, with some 60% in the following, 1901, census. Lady Lane marked the southern boundary of the Leylands proper - though many Jews also lived in the adjoining streets. (The old dilapidated building on the north side was once a Wesleyan chapel built in the 1840's on the site of the first Roman Catholic chapel in Leeds.)
116. The site of the First Synagogue - James Street West and Monmouth Street
The site of the First Synagogue - Kingsmead Street, now, James Street West and Monmouth StreetThe site of the first synagogue lies due west of Abbey Square. Kingsmead Street is a westwards extension of Westgate Street.
The first synagogue was convened in an adapted building, one that had formerly been the New Theatre and then a girls' school. The motivating force for the establishment of a formal community and synagogue was Moses Samuel, the retired parnas of the Great Synagogue. The synagogue was established at some point before 1826. A date of 1816 is most likely as Solomon Wolfe is recorded as Reader to the Hebrew Congregation for 50 years from that date to 1866. Now the site has been consumed by a DHSS building and Telephone exchange.
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117. East Cliff Lodge - The Home of Moses Montefiori
East Cliff Lodge, St Lawrence Parish - The Home of Moses Montefiori, now George IV ParkMoses Montefiori brought East Cliff Lodge in 6 April, 1831, from the estate of the late Patrick Cummings. The lodge cost the princely sum of £5,500 and had 24 acres of estates attached.
The house dated from 1794 and was built in a heavily crenellated Gothic style for Benjamin Hopkins and was designed by a Mr. Bocey of Margate. The house was built around a quadrangle and included the famous Gothic Library, where Sir Moses spent much of his time, as well as the exceptionally fine dining room. In 1803 Queen Caroline used it as a summer villa.
In 1804, it was brought by Viscount Elphinstone, who was then Admiral Lord Keith. The Admiral found the house a useful place to sally forth to the Channel Squadron, which protected the coastline and downs, especially as he had special galleries and underground passages built down to the sea as well as a private jetty. He also had distinguished visitors including Pitt, and the Duke of Wellington.
He also had an Italianate Greenhouse made in 1805 against the stable block wall. This green-house was later to be used by Judith Montefiori and for many years during and after her time provided the flowers for the synagogue, particularly at Shavuot, when there were 'banks' of fresh flowers on display.
In 1814, a Russia merchant, Patrick Cummings brought the house. He was subsequently to lease it to Marquis Wellesley, the brother of Wellington. Finally Moses Montefiore leased the house, but was unable to buy it until after the decease of Patrick Cummings in 1830.
Montefiori was to entertain some very distinguished guests at his home. These included the young Queen Victoria, then Princess Victoria. She played on the lawns there and had a special gilt key to a door of the grounds.
Montefiori died at East Cliff Lodge, and indeed his taharah (ritual ablution of the deceased) was performed in one of the libraries down stairs. The old philanthropist also lay in his favourite room the Gothic Library before his interment. After the death of Sir Moses; Sir Joseph Sebag Montefiore (his nephew and chief mourner) became the resident of the lodge. Sir Joseph (b. 1822) was the son of Sir Moses' eldest surviving sister, Sarah and effectively became the successor of Moses Montefiori.
The house and grounds survived until quite recent times. However the sale of the house to the Borough was to prove fatal for the lodge. In 1954 - an era when big houses were unfashionable - the house was raised to the ground as the council did not want to maintain it and protect it against vandals.
Today the gate-house lodge of the house is still standing. This is in the same Gothic style as the original house. The earthworks of the terrace around the house and some of the steps still survive and some of the various levels of the former lawns are there too. The rare early green house, used by Judith Montefiori, also survives and is preserved, though local children seem to think that throwing stones at the early 19th century glass is deeply rewarding. There are also some other out-buildings and walls.
The remains of the house are at the east end of George IV Park and can be reached by a walk across the park from the end of East Cliff Road. The approach from town is to go east along the Promenade to the gates of the park. Alternatively one can travel east along Hereson Road, towards Dumpton Park and then turn right (south) down Montefiori Avenue.
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118. Mildmay Lodge School - Mildmay Hotel, Folkestone Road
Just to the right and adjacent of the entrance to Westmount is the Mildmay Hotel, which is the former school of Rev. Barnstien. It is no doubt significant that Barnstein set up his school almost in the shadow of that of his illustrious predecessor, to perhaps profit from virtue by association.The building is a substantial stuccoed and rendered Victorian building, which was no doubt well suited for a boarded school. The building had evidently ceased to be a Jewish school at some point before 1898, as in this year it is listed as the residence of one Nils Schjott.
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119. Little Germany
Bradford's Little Germany lies close to Bradford city centre, to the north of the Leeds Road, which links to Hall Ings. It is of great heritage importance and has been designated a Conservation Area since 1976, with many grade II listed buildings. It has the greatest concentration and most fascinating collection of listed industrial buildings in one small area in the country. Some 193 wool warehouses were built between 1875 and 1914 in Little Germany. A good many of these warehouses were built or used by the German Jewish merchants, and since a number of these Jewish merchants, were among the richest and most influential of the German merchant community, it is no surprise that some of the most notable of the warehouses belonged to these 'merchant princes'. Most of the Jewish warehouses lie in the area designated the 'Grand Warehouse' district in the conservation plan, which contain the most dramatic and architecturally important of the warehouses.The Jewish Link
The Jewish link with the area, which was also called Germania, or, 'New Germany', is irresistible. Leo Shuster, who was a Jewish convert to Unitiarianism, built the first German warehouses in Bradford in 1836. However, it was Jacob Behrens, who actually created the circumstances for the wholesale growth of the area, by his work with the Bradford Chamber of Commerce; his engineering a trade treaty with France in 1860 and generally improving communications to Bradford.
Once the foundations for the trade had been laid, the warehouses went up rapidly -- 80% went up between 1860 and 1874. The area, which was former glebe land of the local church, was originally chosen by the merchants, as it was close to Bradford's railways and the steeply-rising ground of the area was cheap development land. The warehouses functioned as export clearing houses for bulk goods, largely of 'stuff' (i.e. worsted) and yarn. In usage, the building used the basements for storage and the upper-rooms for stock, sale and packaging. The actual manufacturing went on largely at Goitside.
The best local architects of the day were used for the construction of the warehouses, such as Andrews and Delauney, Lockwood and Mawson, and Miles and France. In style the buildings are built of a mellow, local, brown sandstone and are in an 'Italianate' palazzo (palace) style. The buildings have many fine architectural details, with rusticated stone work on the ground floor, decorative string courses, fine window details on the large rectangular windows, and ornate entrances, as well as wagon entrances with decorative iron gates. Most have hidden slate roofs and dramatic parapet-lines and chimneys. The setting of the warehouses on narrow, sometimes, irregular streets, is part of their distinctiveness and charm.
Undoubtedly the scale and grandeur of these warehouses was partly due to rivalry between different Victorian cities as well as civic pride and the desire to impress clients. European visitors have commented how much the buildings remind them of Germany itself and central Europe and indeed the area was recently used as a film-set and stand-in for Berlin!
In 1977 John Roberts published his City Trail -- 'Little Germany' and it is his information which makes it possible to identify the following warehouses as being of Jewish origin and to give their dates, though there are more which could still be traced.
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120. Jews' Court, the Site of the Medieval Synagogue - Steep Hill
Jews' Court is thought to be on the site of a medieval synagogue. Roth, the celebrated historian of Anglo-Jewry, believed that the actual, current upper room of the present building was used as a synagogue. Other historians have doubted if the Jews' Court itself was the actual synagogue, but documentary evidence supports the idea that the synagogue lay just behind the current building and that the original buildings on Jews' Court site were Jewish communal buildings directly connected with the synagogue.The Jews' Court directly adjoins the celebrated Jew's House, down the slope from it. The building itself is thought by archeologists to date from around 1300, but with a large accumulation of later additions largely from the 18th century. However, the site has not been subject to a through archeological survey and it is entirely possible that it may still incorporate earlier elements to a greater or lesser extent. My own examination of the building suggested that that key parts of original walls may still remain in part, especially at the rear.
Dr Graham Borradaile of Canada has conducted his own survey using a new dating technique called 'Viscous Re-magnetization Dating', to determine the age of stabilization of the masonry in the Jews' Court. He writes that this test has 'proved that masonry was installed in the 13th century and it is not a 17th century building as suggested by critics of the 'synagogue hypothesis'. The structure even includes re-used Roman masonry (c.300 AD).'
The Jews' Court was supposed by tradition to be the site of the fabricated martyrdom of Little Hugh and a well in a corner of the basement was alleged to be the place where the body was concealed. These claims, however, have no real historical substance and it turns out that original well of the story was almost certainly at another location in town. This one was fabrication from the turn of the 20th century - a fake which enabled gullible visitors to be charged a small fee to see the place of the alleged horrible deed -- a double imposture!
There is some evidence, though, that there may have been a historic natural spring in the basement of the building, which used to over-flow into the street and which could leave open the possibility of that a mikveh (Jewish ritual bath) was in the building in its earlier history.
The Jew's Court was enthusiastically believed by Cecil Roth to be a synagogue. He was very impressed and excited by a stone aumbary (or cupboard) in the east wall of the second floor, upper-room which he thought was the ark for a Torah scroll. Although some agree that this wall may be old enough to be original, however, it is now thought by others that this section of the building is probably 18th century,
Recent research into the nature of medieval English synagogues overall makes this claim that the room was specifically a synagogue seem less likely. Apart from the fact the building may be too late in date, it is unlikely that a synagogue would have directly fronted a street. Most were in deliberately obscure back-street, sunken into the ground and, from the outside, anonymous.
Documentary sources show that a synagogue did in fact lie against the house, and that the original buildings on the site were used in some connection with the synagogue. In the 1290 Inquest at the time of the Expulsion, it is stated that the Jews' Court site was part of the communal property of the Jews, 'adjoining the scola (synagogue) in the street of the synagogue as well as two houses over the entrance to it'. Therefore the synagogue is most likely to have been to the rear of Jews' Court in what is now the garden, with the original Jews' Court being part of the entrance to the building and being connected in function with it. Thus the rear garden is probably the place to go to appreciate the location, though the original building may well have had a Jewish religious use relating to the synagogue and might just have contained a mikve,so it is not entirely inaccurate to describe it as part of a medieval synagogue. The rear of the property has yet to be excavated and there is a large raised area that may be of archeological interest.
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121. Sheep Street – Site of ‘Gonski & Davis’ Toy Dealers
Sheep Street begins at the top of the Drapery but is cut in two by Greyfriars and Lady’s Lane which run either side of the bus station.‘Gonski and Davis’ toy dealers and General Dealers were at 24 Sheep Street, just two houses up along the same row as Dr Dodderidge’s, but has been obliterated by the development of Greyfriars and Lady’s Lane around the Greyfriars bus station and Grosvenor Centre. The site of Gonski’s is the small triangular traffic island in the middle of Greyfriars road and the new road was driven clean through it in the 1970s.
The site of G.L. Michel’s and Michel’s House (and home synagogue) at Newlands has similarly been swallowed up in these redevelopments to the east of Sheep Street. The former factory appears to lie under the northwest corner of the new Greyfriars bus station (or close by) and Newlands is now under the Grosvenor Centre. The beginning of former Newlands street is the Market Square entrance to the shopping centre, by the Welsh House.
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122. Castle Rising (near King's Lynn)
Castle Rising is a Norfolk village of exceptional interest. The huge Norman castle, and its extensive earth works, which was a vital attraction for the Jewish settlers of the village, is still very much in evidence. The castle dates from about 1150 and the keep from the 12th Century. The castle belonged to the powerful William d'Albini, the Earl of Sussex, and was retained by the family until 1224.The community was established by about 1174, perhaps somewhat earlier, if the known dates of some of the Castle Rising Jews are taken into account. The date of foundation probably would not predate the building of the castle in 1150.
A Diaia of Rising (fil Mosse de Lincoln) is known from the settlement and was married to Henna. Diaia is known from as early as 1239 and died in c.1273-4. A Deulecresse of Rising, fil Diaia (and ultimately, fil Leo) is known, but not of the same family as the other Diaia. He was known by 1239.
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123. Moyses Hall
Opposite and on the left, at 13 Pembroke Street is a 17th century house (known as ‘House Thirteen’ to Pembroke graduates), now belonging to Pembroke College. The site of this house is approximate to that of Moyses Hall, which was the home of the first Rabbi Moses who lived in Oxford, and also Jacob of Oxford and Lombard of Cricklade. In its day, it was a large property with three shops, with first floor dwelling areas above called solars, and a garden.There were other Jewish halls in this street, that were let out to students. These included Bull Hall, which belonged to Jacob the Jew (of Merton fame) which is approximately on the site of the St Aldate’s Rectory on the north of the street, nearly opposite House Thirteen.
Other well known Jewish halls let to students included Little Jewry Hall in the former ‘poor Jewry’, Moses Hall which was brought by Oriel in 1362 and possibly Clare Hall which stood somewhere in St Aldate’s between Little Jewry Lane and Carfax.
Turning back up St Aldate’s there were a number of other Jewish houses on the left hand side of the street, going up the hill. The most important and substantial properties were, however, at the very top of the street, on either side of the street. These were mostly substantial luxury dwellings of stone, being ‘first floor halls’. They had large stone under-crofts or cellars, with the hall living accommodation above, which included an upper solar, or accommodation level where the family could retire.
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124. Former Jewish Businesses - Lady Lane / Bridge Street
Lady Lane and Bridge Street was the location of many Jewish shops and small synagogues. Bridge Street was the main thoroughfare of the Leylands. This part of the street was the site of anti-Jewish riots in 1917. Bridge Street was so called as it led from Lady Bridge over Lady Beck. The road bridge over Bridge Street carrying New York Road was only built in 1910/11. Proceeding up Bridge Street on the left is Templar Street which was overwhelmingly Jewish (in the 1901 census more than 500 Jews lived in this street alone) and then we come to Trafalgar Street which was once roped off from Bridge Street so that hawkers and tradesmen would not disturb the peace of the rather more upmarket inhabitants of the somewhat larger dwellings situated along the street.Top
125. Jew's Lane - Lower Bristol Road
The existence of Jews' Lane, off the Lower Bristol Road, is a tangible reminder of the Jewish community of the past in Bristol and suggests an area of Jewish settlement, or some other Jewish association, such as a synagogue, yet to be established. Jew's Lane is not on Moule's map of the late 1830s and was thus probably a Victorian suburban development. The lane is a short section of road, directly off the Lower Bristol Road, which becomes Lansdowne View, immediately after the railway line crosses the road. This further points to the origins of the lane after the building of the railway, as this is the demarcation line.It is to be found on the south side of the Lower Bristol Road (A36) between the junctions of Burnham Road and High Street and is officially part of Twerton.
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126. The Cemetery - Cecilia Road, Dumpstone Road
The cemetery of the Ramsgate community is situated in a former field near East Cliff, not far from the Municipal cemetery. It is over-looked by housings estates and allotments.The cemetery was founded by the famous Jewish explorer Benjamin Norden in 1872 and consisted in the first instance of a field of about a 1/4 of an Acre. It was calculated that the cemetery had space for about 480 burials. The cemetery was enlarged in 1931, when more ground was brought. Interments were made of residents of Ramsgate, Margate and Westgate and other eastern Kent Jewish communities.
The cemetery is surrounded by a wall and is entered through its ohel. The brick ohel is of considerable interest as it is largely unaltered from the Victorian era. It is a simple brick building, with a pitched roof and is entered through central double-doors. The arch above the door with its iron work is the main decorative feature along with a simple Hebrew inscription set in the apex of the arch. The roof-line has a simple dog-tooth decoration along the gables.
Inside, the ohel is wood-lined and has its original prayer boards covering the walls; all clearly bearing Benjamin and Abigail Norden's name. There is also a gas light and an old wooden bier for bearing coffins. A now antiquated gas fire replaces the original fireplace.
Benjamin Norden's grave is in the very centre of the cemetery, immediately to the right of the yew trees.
Other burials include those of the Afrigan family. Shem Tob Afrigan of Morrocco (d. 1908) had been one of Sir Moses Montefiori's personal retainers and Abraham Afrigan his son, a shamash of the synagogue for 36 years. These individuals are of interest as they were members of the 'black' Jewish community, being of North African origin.
Other long term ministers of the synagogue are to be found; Rev. Herman Shandel, who served the synagogue for 48 years.
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127. 67 East Parade - Grattan Warehouse,
This warehouse was originally built for Sharp Sonnenthal and Co, in 1913.Top
128. 'Jew's House' - no. 15 the Strait and 1 Steep Hill
The Jew's House was originally the property of Belaset, daughter of Solomon of Wallingford, it is now celebrated as the oldest occupied house in Europe. Belaset was hanged on an allegation of coin clipping in 1290. The convenient allegation and charge of coin-clipping was regularly made in the 13th Century against Jews, though the evidence is that as a group Jews were usually less likely to doctor the coinage.The house was built as a Norman first-floor hall, probably from the mid 12th century, with some asserting the date to be c. 1170-80. It preserves much of its decorated ashlar work in limestone and its street facade is largely intact. It has an impressive Norman entry with a large chimneybreast supported on it as well as two (mutilated) Romanesque upper windows. Two of the decorative string courses still survive as well, meaning that it is the most striking of all the medieval 'Jews' Houses' in Lincoln.
An additional feature is an entrance hall that runs through the width of the house to the rear of the property and to what would have been an exterior rear staircase up to the domestic accommodation.
It is rightly considered to be one of the most important early domestic dwellings in the country. It is worth considering if the Jew's House could have been connected in function to Jews' Court. It is now thought that in Norman aristocratic practice, first-floor halls could indeed have functioned in conjunction with nearby by hall-buildings, with the first-floor hall providing the primary and more private dwelling and the adjoining hall for more public functions. If such a speculation is well founded then this would swing the debate back in favour of Roth's claim that the Jews' Court could have had a communal function, albeit under the aegis of one of the greater Jewish families.
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129. 52 Sheep Street – The Premises of Samuel Kronson, Leather Agent (1889)
The Working Men’s Club on Sheep Street, which was formerly no. 52b in the Victorian era, was the premises of Samuel Kronson (c. 1850 - 1924). Kronson was once again one of the earliest Northampton Jewish residents of the modern community. Kronson was a leather agent who originally came from Vienna and his wife Leah came from Oxford. Many of the early modern community were of German or Prussian origin. His home in Northampton was listed as 25 Agnes Road. His tombstone in the Northampton cemetery reveals that he died in Pittsburgh, USA, though evidently his remains were repatriated.Top
130. Jacob's Hall
At the very top of the street, where St Aldate’s becomes Carfax, is 121 St Aldates, better known as the Abbey National Building Society. This property the historic site of Jacob's Hall, was, in its day, one of the largest and most luxurious residences in Oxford. The property was L shaped and had a second frontage in adjacent Queen's Street. The property belonged to Jacob of Oxford and, after his death to his son Moses, between 1270 and 1279. Jacob was an important financier, and a patron of Jewish learning. He was a member of Oxford's distinguished line of rabbis and scholars. The balance of evidence is such that if there was a Talmudic academy in Oxford it was probably here.There were striking subterranean remains of Jacob's Hall until the early 20th century, in the form of substantial Gothic cellars, said to be ‘perhaps some of the most curious ranges of cellars in the whole of England’. The cellars were very extensive and contained some elaborate stone work as well as being linked to other cellars in the street. It was possible, until early this century, to cross the street underground, and emerge from other cellars some way further down the other side of St Aldates! Additionally, there was a strange sub-cellar or passageway, under the main range of cellars. All this could have been for storage of goods and valuables, as well as to provide other means of escape, or passage to other Jewish houses. There is also the possibility that the cellars could have provided a Jewish conventicle, or secretive place of worship, and even a mikveh, as some of the German mikvehs were contained in sub-cellars.
These historical associations, as well as its central location, inspired its choice as the location of the L'Chaim Society, until 1995 and many of its major events were hosted from its first floor rooms.
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131. Leylands School building - Bridge Street / Gower Street
At Bridge Street and Gower Street is the former Leylands School building - it now houses a Chinese restaurant. Built in 1875 as one of the new Board Schools, it gradually became an all Jewish school with national record attendances and its Headmaster was James Watson.It housed a Hebrew school which met on the premises after normal school hours with headmaster Rev. Moses Abrahams, minister of the Great Synagogue, Belgrave Street. The imposition of the 1905 Aliens Act affected Jewish immigration, and together with slum clearance of the southern part of the Leylands in 1907 school rolls were reduced, which eventually enforced closure of the school in 1919.
There were three other such schools (all since demolished) which became completely Jewish in the Leylands. Darley Street, Cross Stamford Street and Lovell Road. The latter became the most famous for its enlightened and pro-Jewish headmaster, Thomas Bentley, and the tremendous scholastic achievements of its pupils. Built in 1901 it was also the first in Leeds to be lit by electricity.
At one time this and the other 'Jewish' schools contributed a quarter of all the scholarships to high schools awarded, even though the Jewish community numbered less than 5% of the total population of the city. On the other side of Bridge Street with Nile Street (originally Back Nile Street) where the Salvation Army chapel now stands, there was the Beth Hamedrash Hagadol Synagogue (1908-1936). Just above it in Lower Brunswick Street/Melbourne Street was the Talmud Torah (the communal Hebrew school).
132. The Jewish Cemetery - Bradford Road, Coombe Down
The Bath Jewish Cemetery was founded in 1815 and its title deed dates from 1820.Coombe Lane and the Jewish cemetery lie some two miles south of Bath. It is located opposite an MOD site, on the corner of Bradford Road (A 3062) and Greendown Place. The 'Foresters Arms Pub' is the easiest landmark, directly opposite the entrance to the cemetery and the ohel. The wall of Greendown House, 174 Bradford Road, further east, indicates the eastern extent of the small grounds.
Again, like many such Jewish sites, the cemetery was on the very edge of the City limits. The former city limits are indicated by an old boundary post opposite the junction of Coombe Road and North Road, the next street junction just to the east. The cemetery was also sited close to the entrance to a local stone quarry.
Overall the cemetery is a dignified and decent burial ground. Within its walls lie the Jewish people of old Bath. What is unusual is that there are no memorials to Jewish mayors or councilors, or folk with other distinctions or celebrity. The inhabitants of the cemetery are as low-key in death, as they were largely in life, and this gives as good an idea of the quiet ambiance of Jewish life in the city as any.
The cemetery is an elongated and irregular shaped plot, lying along the roadside. It is exactly 100 feet long, though its width varies from 30 - 40 feet. It is essentially a long rectangle with a small extension on the south side, a small patch of land 15 feet by approximately 40 feet. It is surrounded by rough stone walls about seven feet high. The former ohel is at the entrance near the pub. It is a small irregular shaped building with a large, now boarded up window, on to street. Inside there is a large fire place on the east wall, though the chimney is on the south wall suggesting a move of the fire place at some point. Indeed there is a closed off window opening close to the fire place. There is also evidence that the roof level was raised at some point as well. The door is on the north side right on the entrance.
Within there are about 50 tombstones, contained in several rows of stones; the majority are uprights, but there are five chest and horizontal tombs. Many of the tombstones have bi-lingual inscriptions, though a number are only in Hebrew. The overall styles of the stones reflect local Christian styles and indeed local (Christian) monumental mason have placed their company name on the margin of some of the stones. Some of the stones have attractive ornamentation. At the rear of the cemetery is a nice example of Cohanic hands. The tombstones of Abraham and D. Rees have very attractive urns and Levitical ewers on their heads. The first burial was in 1836 and the last according to the last caretaker of 1967 was in 1921. Twenty-nine of the tombstones date from before 1901.
At the rear of the plot there is a large regular raised terrace some four feet high, running along most of the length of the back wall of Greendown House. This appears to be another possible example of 'raised ground' i.e. a terrace of preferential or privileged burial, another example of which can be seen at Chatham Jewish cemetery. However the over-grown state of the grounds when we visited made it impossible to establish if this was discarded rubble and material from elsewhere!
A commemorative plaque is to be found set in the middle of the wall of the southern extension of the cemetery. Unfortunately there is no discernable trace of the original inscription what-so-ever.
Since our original visit there have been moves afoot, in Bath in 2006, to bring the cemetery back into decent order by the Friends of Bath Jewish Burial Ground. The cemetery is now the responsibility of the Board of Deputies.
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133. Miscellaneous Sites
<p><strong>The Florry Cottages</strong> Alms houses established by Sir Joseph Sebag Montefiori - Hereson Road When Sir Joseph's youngest daughter, Floretta died he set up six alms houses, the Florry Cottages. Three cottages were for Jews, the others were for other nominees of London Organisations.</p><p><strong>Jewish Boarding Houses</strong> The following comprises a list of some of the Jewish boarding houses listed in 1894. Some of the properties survive and can be seen. </p><p><strong>- Augusta Road</strong> The Laurel Boarding House 7 Augusta Road, Mrs. Barnet; 10 Augusta Road, Mrs. da Costa; 17 Augusta Road, the Misses Twyman </p><p><strong>- Victoria Parade</strong> The Misses Solomon, 3 Victoria Parade. Mrs. M. Solomon, 5 Victoria Parade. </p><p><strong>- Shaftesbury Street</strong> S Afrigan, 9 Shaftesbury Street. </p>Top
134. 4 Burnett Street - Atomik House, now the Bradford Design Exchange,
This warehouse was designed by Eli Milnes and the plans were approved 2 September, 1857.The Bradford design exchange has been modernised as an art gallery and design studio and is a plain two storey office and warehouse corner block. It is a good example how these historic buildings have been adapted for modern use. It was named by Sidney Silver, father of Jonathan Silver and its original proprietor was David Heyn, in 1859. It is a grade II listed building.
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135. Medieval Jewish Artifacts - The Collection, Danes Terrace
The museum in Lincoln is well worth visiting, as researches for this trail have revealed two significant Jewish related artifacts identified by M. Roberts. The first is the 'Lincoln Lamp' which is a medieval suspended alloy oil-lamp with four pointed spouts, which is now understood to be a medieval Jewish Sabbath or ritual lamp, used for the weekly Sabbath and for Jewish festivals. Research by M. Roberts has shown that is almost identical to a medieval Jewish ritual or Sabbath Lamp at Bristol as well as similar to the medieval Sabbath Lamp in the Museum of London and a fore-runner to the later Judenstern lamps of Europe. This makes it just one of three or four confirmed examples in England and is a potent icon of former Jewish religious life in the medieval community.The second item in The Collection is a medieval, ceramic, glazed, decorative roof-tile representing a head of a bearded man, with a (now broken) large nose and a pointed hat of the soft Phrygian type. Research by M.Roberts has shown that this is likely to be a portrait or caricature of a medieval Jew, similar to a chimney pot in the shape of a Jew's head from Oxford, though the latter spewed out smoke from his ears! Depictions of Jews at the time showed them as bearded figures with the distinctive pointed Jewish hat (Phrygian hat); stereotype large noses were also common as well. The precise function of this roof-top caricature is yet to be established, but it is likely that this one may actually depict a local Jewish figure, in the same way that the masons of the cathedral often depicted (and still depict) the heads of contemporary figures in the cathedral.
The Collection is clearly sign-posted from the High Street and Grantham Street.
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136. St Sepulchre’s ‘Church - the Jew’s Cross, and the Site of the Alleged Ritual Murder Attempt, 1277
Carrying on along Sheep Street, and passing by the Mayorhold Car Park on the left hand side, the Church of St Sepulchre is reached after a few minutes walk, on the right of the street.The church is justly famous as one of only five round churches on the country, being modelled on the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. The church was founded by William de Senlis in 1170, a crusader and Knight Templar from the Pas de Calais,
with a cruel reputation.
Because of its round shape, there was an enduring tradition among the locals that it was the old synagogue a view even supported by some of its clergy until the 19th Century. Similarly in Oxford, the hexagonal tower containing the medieval Chapel of Our Lady, situated in the then Smith Gate (and now the computer room of Hertford College) was also held to be the Jews’ synagogue.
The Church’s peculiarities even extend to its burials. During recent repairs to flooring two burials were found in the Church on a north – south orientation, with the heads of the skeletons virtually into the wall. It turned out that these were ancient burials of priest, their heads set directly under the drain hole of a piscina, so as to benefit from post-mortum libations of communion wine and holy water. The discovery illustrates well the powerful beliefs of medieval Christians and equally hints at the vehemence of medieval Christian beliefs about Jews.
It is in this grave yard that the Jewish community is said to have committed their outrage, an attempted crucifixion, against a young Christian boy, on Good Friday 1277. This incident was almost certainly an anti-Semitic fabrication, like the others of period up and down the country.
The broken off cross-head, was averred to have been the remains of a memorial to the ritual murder attempt, and used to be built into the wall of a cottage bounding the churchyard to the south-east and remained there until at least the first World War. Latterly, it was built into the retaining wall of the church yard and eventually moved into the church when the wall was set back in modern times to widen the street. It is now to be found inside the church, scarred by musket fire, lurking on a high and dark window sill in the north east end of the building. However, it is almost certainly a cross blown off the roof in 1661 and is testament to the continued anti-Semitic myth making in Northampton about the former Jews of the town.
Interestingly, an older member of the congregation said that the vivid story of the Jew’s cross had been passed down through generations of choir boys – an interesting example of how such fables can be transmitted. Even though the cross has no real link to actual events, it is an important and potent historical symbol of prejudice. Its preservation should be amply justified on this basis.
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137. The Houses of Moses ben Isaac, and David of Oxford
Now Oxford Town HallOpposite, and going down St Aldates, is Oxford Town Hall. The town hall has strong Jewish associations, as it is entirely built on expropriated Jewish property. The upper half of the town hall is built on the house of Moses ben Isaac. His property was taken in 1229 for use as the Yeld Hall or Guild Hall. His house was reconstructed in 1270 by the city.
The lower half of the town hall stands mostly on the property of David of Oxford. avid’s house apparently had strong associations with Jewish scholarship as he had a large library, of which some 49 books of Jewish Law may have eventually passed to his step-son Benedict of Winchester.
Furthermore, the famous scholar Moses of Oxford (died c. 1268), known respectfully, as ‘the Mighty One’ (also known as Magister Mosseus of London) was possibly born on Town Hall site. Collections of his rabbinical opinions on kashrut (Jewish dietary law), on eggs and on the salting of meat survive.
When David of Oxford died in 1228, the Monarch took his property and gave it to the Master of the Rolls in London, and its income was used to help maintain the House of Converts in London. The building itself may have also been used as a Domus Conversorum, though there has been some debate over this.
The building survived until 1751, when it was taken down to make way for the classical town hall, which has now been superseded by the Gothic town hall. The drawing of the building shows an old stone built first floor hall dwelling, with a tower inserted at one end at a later date. If this was a house of converts, it could be speculated that the tower at the end provides an oratory or chapel for the converts. Jewish converts were required to reside in their places of maintenance, in a life of strict religious discipline.
Various stone remains of this or adjacent Jewish buildings were discovered when the present Town Hall was being constructed in 1893. These include elaborate stone traceries, with evidence of having contained glass, door ways, capital heads and corbels and an elaborate pillared cresset or lamp stone (c.1130 - 1160), which may well have provided lighting in David’s house or in one of the halls of the wealthiest Jews in Oxford. It is tempting to imagine what scenes of Jewish domestic or scholarly life such a lamp may have lit.
Additionally, near the corner of Blue Boar Street, a bank of triangular stone ‘ashtar holes’, or pigeon holes, were discovered built into a cellar wall. Were these used by a wealthy Jewish financier to keep his (or her) contracts or starrim? This is not an improbable claim as churches, castles and indeed colleges kept their documents, especially accounts, in rolls in recesses in the walls, so why not the Jews of Oxford?
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138. Polish Synagogue (1891-1933) - Byron Street
Proceeding up Bridge Street on to Byron Street, is to be found the site of another important synagogue, the Polish Synagogue (1891-1933).139. Miscellaneous Sites
These other sites may be worth visiting, if time allows, though those in the shopping areas suffer the modern curse of 'facadisation' with modern shop frontages and other re-developments and the removal of street numbers on major stores making them difficult to locate.The home of Solomon Abraham Durlacher - 2 Union Street
Dulacher was a chiropodist (1757-1844/5) previously of Warwickshire. He also lived at 3 York Street.
The home of J. Abraham the Optician - 12 Kingsmead Street
Jacob Arahams was one of the communal leaders of the Bath community, as well an optician and mathematical instrument maker, 'to HRH the Duke of Gloucester and His Grace the Duke of Wellington'. He came originally from Exeter.
Richard Sheridan's House - 9 New King Street
The celebrated playwright Sheridan was based in Bath. His play the School for Scandal (1777) includes a comic, but unsympathetic portrayal of a London Jewish Money lender, Moses, who lends money to under-age young men. This portrayal led to the play nearly being banned in London, as it was supposed to reflect on the character of one of the contestants for the office of Chamberlain at the time, who had been charged with the same offence.
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140. 64 Vicar Lane - Albion House, 1871 Kessler Warehouse
This five storey warehouse and offices was completed by 1875 and the plans included a second warehouse at 2/4 Hick Street. The building is grade II listed and was designed by Milnes and France and built for the son of J.P. Kessler of Frankfurt, who was one of the pioneer export merchants to GermanyTop
141. Cardinal's Hat -- 268 High Street / Grantham Street
The most identifiable site in the Grantham street area is that of the Cardinal's Hat. The noted half-timbered house, and the adjoining properties on the north side of Grantham Street junction with High Street, are over a number of Jewish sites identified by the City of Lincoln Archeological Trust. Two medieval charters show that the Cardinal's Hat was the site of a Jewish property that probably belonged to Joes of Colchester. It eventually passed to the Dean and Chapter in 1366. Next door to the east was a property belonging to Pictavin, who suffered in the Blood Libel accusation.Elsewhere in the west of the street, in St Martin's parish, Vives of Norwich ccupied a house before 1274. However, the evidence shows that the Jews had Christian neighbours despite the un-historical assertions by some that there might have been a 'ghetto' in this area -- there were never any ghettos in medieval England.
In the east of the street, in St George's, lived Elias Grossus (1226-8), and Jacob and Samuel, son of Vives; Hagin owned a property here in 1257. In 1258 he obtained a house that had belonged Vives the Jew of Northampton.
In the later 13th century an Isaac of Brauncegate lived in the street. His two sons are mentioned in the 1290 Inquest.
At the Expulsion, there were some seven Jewish properties listed in the street. Solomon, son of Deulecress of London, had two small houses; Jacob, son of Isaac de Brauncegate, had a good 'well-built'house; Manser of Bradeworth, had two houses, one of them another 'good house well-built'; Joceus of Colchester, had 'tenements in Brauncegate, good houses, well built, with two chambers...' It seems that most of these were high status stone-built houses. It is likely that the phrase 'chamber' may be a short hand for a house with an upper-chamber built in stone.
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142. The Barrack Road, and Temple Bar - the medieval Jewish cemetery
On leaving St Sepulchre’s, turn right out of the gate, and continue a short distance over to the major road junction at the end of the road. This is the site of the former North Gate of Northampton, a major entrance to the medieval town.Crossing straight over, continue along the busy Barrack Road, keeping to the right hand side. A few minutes’ walk will bring one to a tiny, and near defunct street called Temple Bar, that serves over its very short length to connect Barrack Road to Maple Street. Nearly opposite is former St Andrew's Villa, now Regent's House and overlooking the street are some rather forbidding low-rise Council flats. If you walk as far as St Lawrence Street, you will have slightly overshot.
The site of the cemetery was identified in 1992 by the author. It was found by profiling the typical site factors of the other known medieval Jewish cemetery locations in England, to create a typical location profile, in terms of factors such as the typical distance from the Jewry, relation to roads and access, drainage, enclosure type and size. This was then matched to the known historical facts about the cemetery, i.e. that it had been out side the north gate on St Andrew’s Priory land. The final element of the deduction was the use of a surviving highly detailed 17th century map, which accurately showed all of the former St Andrew’s land and enclosures. From this it was clear that only one location, a tiny poorly drained enclosure could be the site which was eventually developed into Temple Bar and Paradise Row. It was possible to move from the medieval enclosures to the modern street plan as virtually all of the streets ran on the former field boundaries in order to maximize developments within the individual field plots.
The confirmation of the identification came by chance months later in 1992, on the eve of the Day of Atonement, when a deep culvert collapsed revealing interments. The finds were in a hole in the roadway it self, close to the junction of Temple Bar with Maple Street. The general area of the cemetery is Temple Bar itself, and a former row of house forming Paradise Row. It is now an area of grass, and young trees immediately adjacent, to the north of the street.
The skeletons comprised of three to five individuals. The three main individuals identified consisted of a female, aged 40-44 years, and two males. Unfortunately little more could be deduced from the remains, except that one of the males suffered an arthritic condition. Later, Carbon dating revealed that dating range of the remains was almost exactly that of the period that cemetery existed and was in operation. Also archaeological research was able to eliminate the possibility it was some other cemetery and it is now identified in the archaeological record as a Jewish cemetery.
The archaeological report on the find, while recognising the relict enclosure argument, argues that the siting factor was waste land behind a medieval ribbon development of houses along the high-way, though both positions are not in reality mutually exclusive.
In its day the cemetery would have had a substantial wall, with a gate, surrounded by a deep ditch. The cemetery also had a house for funeral rites, and lodging for a watchman. The house probably lay on the highway, fronting, and concealing, the cemetery behind. There was probably a narrow entry to the gate off the side of the house. The burials would have been in neat rows, with male and female burials kept separate. Most burials would have had tombstones set facing outwards at the foot of the grave.
This spot today is admittedly unprepossessing, but one should remember that in olden days the cemetery had an essentially rural location, surrounded by fields, partly fronted by medieval suburban dwellings along the then King's Highway.
Antiquity does still survive close by, though hidden from casual glance. The south wall of Regent's House marks a former field boundary that is close to a thousand years old. Also many of the main dividing streets around follow the old field boundaries, some equally old.
As a concluding thought, if it had not been asserted before the discovery of bones that this was a Jewish cemetery site, then it is likely that the site would have been declared an unofficial 17th century non-Conformist burial ground, as had been assumed when the bones were first uncovered and not accorded any protection as an archaeological site.
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143. Oxford Castle and the 'Jew's Mount'
Castle Street/New RoadThe site of Oxford Castle is important in the Jewish story of Oxford, but until recently you would have had to have been a guest of Her Majesty’s Prison Service to have access to the site. The site has now been turned into a heritage centre.
The Castle has very strong links to Oxford Jews and would have been frequented by the Jews on a regular basis. Its buildings – especially the keep and towers - would have been familiar to them, inside and out. Also, some of the remaining buildings and features are among the few surviving from the time of Oxford’s medieval Jews.
The Jews, as a group, were the literal possessions of the King and under the protection and authority of the King. This authority and protection was usually mediated by the Sheriff and the Constable or Keeper of the Castle. The Sheriff would take overall responsibility for the local Jews and the Constable or Keeper of the Castle would provide physical protection for the Jews. Jews tended to settle in the proximity of royal castles as their major refuge in times of trouble. Many Jewish lives were saved by this recourse to royal castles up and down the country.
The Constable at Oxford was especially important for the Oxford Jews as, unusually, he was not just protector, but he took over some of the functions of the Sheriff in managing the Jews of the town. This combination of roles was principally in the reign of Henry III, and Imbert Pugeys was a notable Constable in this respect.
Indeed, in recognition of his duties towards the Jews in 1253, Imbert Pugeys, the Constable of the Castle, was granted, ‘that part of the mills below the Castle of Oxford which belongs to the King, and all the issues of the same part, and the keeping of the King’s Jewry in Oxford.’ It may also be recalled that the surviving St George’s Tower over ooked these mills close to the tower and was part of their protection. A mill is depicted in a picture of 1814 as adjoining the tower.
The jurisdiction of the Constable over the Jews was much to the annoyance of the University, as he claimed priority in settling any disputes between Jews and scholars, though later the King was to allow the Chancellor of the University some say in such disputes. It must be remembered that the Jews of Oxford were neither directly under the power of the Town or the University, but the King and his representatives, and that they as a group predated the foundation of the University.
It is possible that the Oxford chirograph chest would have been lodged at the Castle as it was a secure location and royal property. The chest was used to administer and lodge all Jewish bonds and transactions and was very important in medieval Jewish life. The Oxford chest was one of the original chirograph chests.
Jews sought the protection of the Constable in 1244, during riots raised by students who attacked and robbed Jewish houses. The Constable intervened and threw 45 students in the town jail at Bocarda and in the Castle.
It is more than likely that the Jews took refuge in Oxford Castle on a number of occasions. They were almost certainly there in 1141 and 1244 and during the Baron’s War. Jews would usually take refuge in the keep, the main stronghold of their local castle. Clifford’s Tower at York, for example is infamous for the mass suicide of its Jews in 1190 when they felt that they were unable to hold out. The connection of Jews with the keeps of castles was so strong, that some were even named after them - the keep of Winchester Castle was actually called the ‘Jews’ Tower’ as early as the 13th century. Thus, the Jews of Oxford may have been no strangers to the keep on the Castle Mound or other towers and defenses about the site.
If Oxford Jews were accused of breaking the law, they would frequently be imprisoned in the Castle. In 1236 the Jewish community removed a child who had been baptised, possibly the child of the convert John of Oxford, and spirited him away to Exeter, in an effort to keep him in the faith. As a result, several Jews were arrested by William le Bretun, Justice of the Jews, and they were made over to the constable of Oxford Castle for imprisonment before trial.
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144. Carr Lane - The Duveens
Joseph Joel Duveen was an enterprising young salesman who came to Hull from Holland in 1866. Three years later he married Rosetta, the daughter of Abraham Barnett, a local pawnbroker who was then trading at 50 Carr Lane. J.J. Duveen prospered greatly as an art dealer and was a generous benefactor to many public galleries. His son, another Joseph Joel, also became a distinguishedart dealer and a great philanthropist. In 1933 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Duveen of Millbank, commemorating a long association with the Tate Gallery. The Duveens maintained their links with Hull by presenting works of art now in the Guildhall collection and the Ferens Art Gallery. Lord Duveen died in 1939 and in due course, the Ferens Gallery was presented with eighteen items from his estate. They reflect his enthusiasm for the avant-garde of his day, and include oil paintings by David Bomberg and Stanley Spencer.
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145. Jewish Tailors' Machinists and Pressers' Union Building - Cross Stamford Street
Also going up Leylands Road (a new road constructed as late as the 1950's) to Skinner Lane (marking the northern boundary of the Leylands) beyond the roundabout, to Cross Stamford Street is another building erected in 1910 for the Jewish Tailors' Machinists and Pressers' Union. Not a very distinguished edifice but perhaps unique as a specifically Jewish union building, which also housed Jewish social events and gatherings. The union was established in 1893 and became probably the largest Jewish union in the country. Only five years after the building was opened it merged with the National Garment Workers' Union.Top
146. 6 Currer Street, (also known as 68/70 Vicar Lane), Stuff Warehouse, Reiss Brothers, 1857 -- 58
The plans for the building were first approved, in 1856, for Leopold Reiss. There is a record of naturalization for a Leopold Reiss in 1836 and the Reiss brothers appear to have started their work in England, in Leeds. There is an entry in an 1837 trade directory for Reiss brothers listed as merchants. There is also an 1876 portrait of Mrs Leopold Reiss, of Broome House, Eccles, in Manchester art gallery, by Millais.The warehouse is called the Stuff Warehouse, as 'stuff' was the contemporary term for worsted woollen cloth.
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147. Grantham Street (Brauncegate)
Grantham Street is further down the Strait and is of to the left where the Strait meets the High Street. Grantham Street lay part in St Martin's parish to the west and also as part of the tiny St George's parish to the east. It was a prosperous residential street, largely developed in the late 12th and 13th Centuries and in the 13th century and housed a number of Jews as well as Christians. The excavations do, however, suggest that commercial activity was also going on in the street, in the form of proto-'shops', if not full-scale (in terms of the time) industrial activity.Excavations show that the houses in the street were well built in stone, up to the eaves. Some had very generous street frontages as much as 10 m. wide. Since a medieval 'shop' was merely a wide window or bench about six feet across a very broad frontage would have been needed. The frontages housing 'shops' are conjectured to have had such wide windows where the selling went on. The generous frontage of some of the houses would explain how Josce Gubbay elsewhere in Lincoln could have, 'a very good house with a copse and six shops'.
These fine stone houses and halls were attractive with well-decorated, tiled roofs. The houses, with halls as the main residence, projected at right angles to the street, back on to their plots, effectively forming a wing on their earlier street frontages. The block of excavated houses at the east of the street largely belonged to Christians.
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148. The Market Square - Samuel Isaac's fountain
After having meditated on the site of the medieval Jewish cemetery, and retraced ones steps to the Market Square, the remaining Jewish sites on the trail can be seen.The medieval Market Square is the largest in the entire Country, though in its time it was just one of several markets in the town. The medieval Jewry, hard by the north-west corner of the market, would have serviced the financial needs of many of its customers.
It was also the site of Samuel Isaac's Iron fountain (extant 1858-1962), a fondly remembered landmark in the town. Isaac’s fountain can be approximately located as it was north of the exit of Conduit Lane (which is on the south-side of the Market Square) approximately half-way into the main square.
The fountain was raised to commemorate the marriage of Prince Albert to Princess Alexandra of Denmark, but was often used as a focus for various rallies and speakers. When the metal work was taken away in the 1960s the nearest market traders used to use the remaining steps for staking up crates of cabbages and vegetables. The remaining stone were later removed as an impediment on the square a sad end to a well-regarded feature of old Northampton. In more recent times many of the original and characterful cobbles of the square have also been removed and replaced with brick pavers in the name of public safety.
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149. The Jews’ Mount or Jews’ Hill
Bulwarks Alley (off New Road)The traditional link of the Oxford Jews with Oxford Castle is evidenced in the Jew’s Mount which was at the castle site. The Jews’ Mount was apparently a long artificial mound, though Tovey, a famous Oxford historian of the Jews who had first hand knowledge of it, also describes it ‘as a small tract of rising ground’. It was also linked or continuous with another artificial mound called Mount Pelham. H. E. Salter, the Oxford topographer, also adds that the term ‘mount’ actually meant ‘mound’ and that it was a mound of earth thrown up during the construction of the medieval castle ditch and, further, that by the 17th and 18th century all the leases relating to the Jews’ Mount, used the word ‘mound’ to mean ‘fence’ or ‘boundary’, rather than a heap of earth, and they relate that the Jews’ Mount was mounded (ie bounded) on the north side and was ditched at the south. The Jews’ Mount is cited to have been north east of the Castle Hill, in line with the City Wall.
Wood, the Oxford historian, held that it had been made by the local Jews in 1141, under the compulsion of King Stephen. Tovey, however, relates another local tradition that it is named after a number of converted Jews who were burnt to death for reverting to Judaism. There is no clear historical evidence for the accuracy of these traditions, though it is now surmised that both mounts were raised during sieges of the castle, which does link to the King Stephen tradition. Tovey thought that the name arose out of the Juis or pit at the foot of the mount that was used for local ordeals by water. Cecil Roth thought that there may have been a special fortification for the Jews at the site, as was the case at other castles – this is an entirely plausible explanation. Evidence of other local Jewish place name traditions across the country have frequently proved surprisingly accurate, but not infallible. Therefore it is possible that the site of the Jews’ Mount is an important link with Oxford’s Jewish heritage.
The Jews’ Mount has been supposed by historians to have been destroyed in 1790 to make way for the new canal and its termination at the canal basin next to the Castle site in Oxford. Nuffield College is built on the site of the former canal basin. However, the site is still easily identifiable.
Part of the Jews’ Mount was leased as part of the canal wharf in 1796 and it appears, as far as can be gleaned from the leases, that some three properties were on Jews’ Mount by the early 19th century. This is proven in a 19th century history of Oxford which states that the Jews’ Mount, ‘were afterwards built upon; and the houses in Bullock’s Lane, so called from a person of that name who built there in 1588, together with the canal office, stand on part of them.’ The 1923 schedule of the property of the Mayor, Aldermen and Citizens of Oxford, places everything on a completely certain footing, when it records as one of its entries that the Offices of the Oxford Canal Navigation was at ‘The Jews’ Mount, part of site of Offices and House – Bulwarks Alley'. This makes it simple to place, as ‘Canal House’ still exists and is now the Master’s Lodgings of St Peter’s College. Its back door still opens into Bulwarks Alley. The Conservative Club also occupies part of the site.
An examination of the actual site of the Jews’ Mount suggests that a possible section of the mount might be preserved under the path of Bulwarks Alley. This is because there is a distinct climb or ramp up to Canal House and then a slight incline down to the steep steps of Bulwark’s Alley which then takes one down to street level. The change in level is seen in the fact that the back door of Canal House is actually on first floor level and that the path of Bulwark’s Alley is contained behind a very high retaining wall on the castle side. It is more likely that this odd topography preserves a historic right of way, rather than being constructed in this fashion for Canal House.
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150. Sites of Jewish shops - North Street
Proceeding along Skinner Lane to North Street, North Street at one time was lined by mostly Jewish shops up to the 1940's and marked the western border of the Leylands proper - which although it comprised hardly more than 50 acres housed some 5,000 Jews by 1891 and more than 6,000 ten years later - an indication of the overcrowding which was rife at the time.Top
151. 4 Currer Street, Nathan Reichenheim of Berlin, 1859
No. 4 was designed by Lockwood and Mawson and was a large warehouse cum office palazzo, built in 1859 and extended in1867. There is some contrary evidence that Andrews & Delauney may have designed the buildings, in so far as they are listed on the actual deposited building plansThe building was commissioned by H.J. Heydemann Esq. and plans were approved 4 May, 1859. Heydemann was Bradford agent and manager for Nathan Reichenheim & Co. of Berlin. Plans to extend the building, at the corner of Currer Street & Vicar Lane, were submitted in 1866, with the architects on this occasion being, Andrews Son & Pepper. It is a grade II listed building.
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152. Flaxengate
Cutting across the eastern side of Grantham Street is Flaxengate. The property, next up the hill (north) from the corner site of Grantham Street and Flaxengate, was almost certainly Jewish owned. It ran all the way across from Flaxengate to the High Street.Top
153. The Market Square / Junction with Abington Street – ‘Doffman’s Corner’
Many older Northampton residents were familiar with ‘Doffmans’s Corner’, at the junction of Abington Street and the Market Square. This prominent site was for many years the shop of Doffman Bros, tailors, circa 1900 – 1920s, which was a superior tailoring establishment and probably one of the most successful Jewish retail out-lets in Northampton. The building is a fine 17th Century premises, which is only evident once one looks up from street level. Saul established his own shop in 1919 at 29 Gold Street in what seems to have been less striking quarters.Top
154. The Old Fire-Station
Site of Synagogue of 1878On exiting Bulwarks Lane, via the cut-through to George Street and turning right to start to walk up the incline back towards the town, the Old Fire Station is quickly reached on the left.
The Victorian synagogue of 1878 is thought to have been to the rear of what is now the Old Fire Station. No trace remains, though its backstreet location and insalubrious surrounds were typical of many synagogues in smaller communities of the era.
On leaving the Old Fire Station, continue up to the junction of George Street with St Giles and Cornmarket. By making a short detour to the right into Cornmarket, the former ‘Zacs’ store is reached on the junction of Cornmarket with Ship Street, overlooking St Michael’s Church.
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155. The Brunswicks
Proceeding along North Street back to City Centre: on the right is the North Street Recreation Ground (originally the site of the Leeds cattle market) - the 'green lung' of the Leylands. Just beyond were streets (the Brunswicks) of quite large terrace houses where some of the better-off Jews lived. Often they housed tailoring workshops as well as living accommodation. One of the houses was transformed into a popular Jewish hotel, Addlemans, which lasted until the 1960's. Opposite, in North Street at the corner with Trafalgar Street in the 1920's, was a kosher restaurant, Bloomfields.Top
156. 26 East Parade - S.L.Behrens, 1873
This warehouse has been awarded a grade II* rating, due to its exceptional interest. It was designed in 1873 by Miles and France and is notable for its grandeur and use of iron decorative details. The tall Venetian chimneys are also of considerable merit along with the details of the drain pipes as they pass through the stone string courses. From a Jewish heritage perspective, the preservation of the Behren's name, in the wrought iron screen above the wagon entrance, is of great importance. There is a plaque to Behrens on the wall of the building and it is important to note that Jacob Unna was the manager at the Behren's warehouse.Top
157. Hungate - site of the second scola (synagogue) -- Garmston House, 262 and 262 a. High Street
The site of a second synagogue, a private scola, was located in Lincoln by C. Johnson in the late 1970s.It can be found by returning to the junction of Grantham Street with High Street. The junction points across to the north boundary of the synagogue site on the opposite side of the High Street. The site is a rectangular plot that lies south and parallel to the line of St Martin's Lane, a lane which intersects both Hungate and High Street. The High Street side of the site was opposite to, and the next plot south, of the junction of High Street with Grantham Street. Through an examination of various records, Johnson discovered that there was an early 13th Century synagogue which had belonged to an Elias Martrin, who died in about 1233.
The property was a narrow but long rectangular plot that spanned the area between Hungate and High Street. There were frontages built on to both streets, with the main dwelling on High Street. The existence of a double street frontage is significant as a key feature of these private synagogues or oratories was exactly that they had such double frontages. The reason for this may be that such sites provided privacy, security, and at least two points of access (and, vitally, exit). There was space to build or extend an existing property or build a new building for use as a synagogue in the middle of the site.
Johnson presumes that the synagogue was associated with the High Street part of the property, as the high-status domestic quarters were always be on the most important side, in the 12th and 13th century. However, in light of greater knowledge of the medieval Jewish private synagogues it is more likely that it would have been either to the rear of the High Street building or even built separately at the back of it. This is made more likely, as elsewhere in Lincoln a distinguishing feature of the time was the fact that many properties had ample space to sprawl across a series of buildings.
The building was inherited by Isaac Peytavin and Dyaya, but was later awarded by the King to Hagin, son of Master Moses in 1249. Hagin lost his possessions as a result of the Blood Libel and the property passed to Queen Eleanor in 1286. The property was eventually acquired by the Dean and Chapter in 1312, through other owners.
The High Street property survived until the 18th century, when it was rebuilt as a town house by John Garmston (or John Harvey) and is no. 262 and 262 A. High Street, now known as Garmston House. In the modern times is has been a cinema, the Grand, which was closed in 1960. While much of what survives is later 17th century, with an 18th century frontage (altered by 1980s' shop-fronts), it still incorporates an arch and a Norman fireplace of the later 12th century in its north wall. This is a significant relic of the original Jewish property but cannot be readily seen.
Other fragments of the original, 12th century Norman building on the Garmston House site have been found. A double arch structure was discovered in the north wall. It was too shallow to be a fire-place and was possibly a cupboard in the original structure. There is also evidence of vaulting from a stone under-croft and glazed and unglazed roof-tile.
In 1978, some of the Hungate portion of the property still survived as stabling and was used by A.J.Todd & Co.
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158. Northampton Central Museum - The Medieval Jewish Tombstone (c. 1259 – 1290)
After taking in Doffman’s Corner, the Museum can be readily reached by crossing the road in to Wood Hill, and St Giles' Square, and thence to Guildhall Road (immediately opposite the Guildhall) and the Museum itself.The tombstone (see feature) is in a permanent exhibition on the upper floor of the building. Precise directions to it, are available at the front desk.
The tombstone forms part of a display on medieval Jewish Northampton, though it is the only exhibit. The artefact may be considered to be among one of the most important remains of the medieval Anglo-Jewry, and is one of only two surviving medieval Hebrew inscriptions in the country, the other at the putative mikveh in Bristol. It has also given a surprising amount of information about the Medieval Jews of the town. It is likely to have been that of a local rabbi and scholar, helping to confirm the known scholarly activity in the Jewry. Also the tombstone is in a German style evidencing an Rhennish influence on East Anglian Jews and the stone itself was Barnack Stone brought all the way from the Barnack quarry near Stamford. The museum gains top marks for setting up a display on the towns medieval Jews, and they are very enthusiastic about their unique piece.
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159. Zacharias
‘Zacs for Macs’ – Corn Market‘Zacharias’ was opened in the 1870s, by Joel Zacharias, the son of a Lithuanian Jewish immigrant, Abraham Zacharias, who had already been active in the town since the 1850s as a silversmith and jeweller. The store came to specialise in all manner of waterproof clothing and covers, hence the famous white painted slogan ‘Zacs for Macs’ which adorned the store and is still remembered by many. The business was taken over by a local non-Jewish family in 1905, when Joel died, but kept the name until it was closed in 1983. The building was restored and, for a time, became Laura Ashleys. For older residents and the not-as-young-as-they-would-like-to-be residents of Oxford, the shop is still know as ‘Zacs’ and was for long the most visible Jewish landmark in the town.
Returning from Zacs to the junction of Broad Street and St Giles, Balliol College is to be found on the left had side of Broad Street at its junction with St Giles.
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160. The Leylands - Former Main area of Jewish Settlement
The Leylands was almost completely swept away in 1936/37, but by then the vast majority of its Jews had left for more salubrious northern areas. Perhaps the last buildings to survive - workshops and factories in Concord Street -- were demolished only a few weeks prior to the writing of these notes. One of those buildings housed the original factory of Montague Burton from 1915 to 1922.(c) Murray Freedman May 2003
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161. 25 Bolton Road - Semons Warehouse, 1877 8
This warehouse was built by Milnes and France and is now the Abbey NationalSadly, the warehouse of Schuster Fulda and Co, 62 Leeds Road (1869 1873) was demolished in 1986 for the new Bradford Ring Road.
The trade directories of the period, 1870 1900, show a much larger number of German Jewish merchants in this area. However many merchants listed had offices but not headquarters in Bradford, in the same way as chain stores today. A total list of merchants' names does not necessarily mean that all the people were Bradford residents.
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162. The Shop of Daniel Cohen (Watchmaker and Jeweler) -- 2 Silver Street
Continuing to walk right down to the end of the High Street, the old south gate of the town is reached directly ahead at Stonebow. The second shop in the row to left of gate, in Silver Street, was that of one of the last Jews recorded as living and working in Lincoln in the 19th century - Daniel Cohen, in a court deposition of 1842 describes himself as a silver-smith living in Silver Street, though by 1867 he is described as a watchmaker and jeweler of 2 Silver Street.Top
163. 10 Victoria Road – Premises of A&W Flatau
One of the workshops of the Jewish company A&W Flatau can be seen at the end of Victoria Road, close to the junction with St. Edmund’s Road. The original address was given as 8 – 10 Victoria Road and the current converted workshop at no. 10 is almost certainly Flatau’s premises, despite a small change in the numbering. Flatau’s occupied this premises in 1884.Flatau’s was a Jewish boot and shoe manufacturer from London, and Dr Jolles who has completed much research on this area, has stated that Flatau’s were definitely Jewish and indeed a Jewish Flatau gave evidence to Parliament on ‘sweated’ trades. Therefore this property and Palmerston House are important relics of the Jewish association with the boot and shoe trade in Northampton.
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164. Balliol College, Basevi Building (1826)
Balliol College Chapel stained glass - Broad StreetIn 1825, the architect George Basevi, the first cousin of Benjamin Disraeli, designed the new building on the West Front of Balliol, overlooking Magdalen Street. It was built in 1826 to provide additional student accommodation. Known as the Basevi Building, it has two very distinctive frontages – it is a mellow Georgian building in sandstone, when seen from within the college; but its street exterior, facing Mary Magdalen Church at the end of St Giles, is ornate in the classical style with a large classical cornice in pale limestone. It is presently staircases 13 and 14 on the Magdalen Street East curtilage.
Benjamin Disraeli’s mother was a Basevi from Hove, and the Basevis, along with the Lindos, were leading members of the Sephardic community, a number of whom accepted baptism to advance their place in society.
George Basevi was baptised secretly at 17 years old, along with his family, and he was additionally able to pass himself off as Italian: this helped him to have a successful career as a society architect, who designed many fashionable houses for the rich. His commissions included Bromsberrow Place, Gatcombe Park (Gloucs), Titness Park (Berks) and Beechwood in Highgate Village, London, the latter designed for his brother Nathaniel. He was also commissioned by the Jewish financiers of the Haldimand syndicate to design Belgrave Square in London. After his death, he was commemorated with a brass plaque in Ely Cathedral.
The Jewish connections of the Basevi building appears to have been overlooked by previous historians and this building must count as one of the most significant extant buildings in Oxford with a Jewish provenance.
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165. 2 Eldon Place -- Home of Jacob Unna
Jacob Unna, who was Behren's right-hand man and a founder of Bradford's Chamber of Commerce, lived at 2 Eldon Place, off Manningham Lane. The house still survives and is a Georgian-style, stone terraced town house. Eldon Place is west off Manningham Lane after the junction with Drewton Road and is within walking distance of the centre of Bradford.Many events of Unna's were naturally played out in the house, including the marriage of Jacob's daughter, Violetta Anna Unna, who married Leopold Levis on March 24th 1858 at the Registry Office in Bradford. This was followed by a religious ceremony at the Unna home at Eldon Place where Rabbi Dr. Schiller, the minister of the Reform Community in Manchester officiated. Unna's two other children were both married at the Registry Office.
When Jacob Unna celebrated his eightieth birthday, at Eldon Place, his grandson wrote a letter to his father (i.e. Jacob's son) telling him about the party. This letter gives us a unique window into life in this house and Victorian Jewish Bradford.
14 February 1880
My Dear Papa,
I am sure that we were all very sorry that you were not here on Grandpapas birthday and since you were not here I will give you an account of all that happened on that day: we had breakfast at eight o'clock and then we went down to Eldon Place; when we got there we found that the Lewis's had got there before us; we had to wait about a quarter of an hour, and then Grandpapa came down; just as he opened his bedroom door we began to sing a song called ............ , when he got downstairs (which of course took sometime), we all wished him many happy returns of the day; then he sat down in his chair, and we showed him all the letters and telegrams that had been sent; then he went round to see his presents, among which were; a big .........., from Auntie Ette, a foot warmer for his bathchair, and from Alice a picture of herself as she was at the fancy dress ball; from Auntie Emily a cake with eighty candles round it, and a big one in the middle; from Auntie Fanny a beautiful rug, the inside of which is like Mama's new cloak; from Auntie Annie a lot of notepaper and envelopes; from Uncle Leopold a new office chair; from Auntie¬ Yetta his armchair newly covered and from Fraulein Jeinsen a new domino box, outside covered with fern leaves, and inside with leather, and from Nellie and I the words of the song written on an ornamental piece of cardboard; after he had seen all his presents we went into breakfast; while we were yet at breakfast Mr. Hamburg came in and he was the first visitor who came to wish Grandpapa many happy returns of today; soon after breakfast the visitors began to come; after breakfast Uncle Joe gave him his present which was a hamper of port from 1798, among the visitors were Mr. and Mrs Lartzarous who had come from Manchester on purpose; visitors kept coming, all the morning till about half past one and at this time the gentlemen from the Lodge came; they came and wished him many happy returns of the day and then Mr. Crabtree first made a speech and after the speech gave him an illuminated address and after that the silver salver; then Mr. Wilsman made a speech and after him Doctor Strauss, after they had gone we went into dinner at which we were all present, after dinner the ladies and gentlemen came as before; I forgot to say that three gentlemen Mr Nathan, Mr. Thaliske and Mr. Voigt came before dinner to wish Grandpapa many happy returns in the name of Schiller Wirein.
Visitors came just after dinner and then at about four o'clock Mama and Nellie went home with Emily and Harry who had come down at about twelve, to dress for the party in the evening: in the evening there were all grandpapa's old gentlemen friends, all the relations and besides those Mr. Wood and Mr. Cohn; when the first half of the people were in at supper Grandpapa of course among them, a choir from Doctor Jufts choir came and sang two songs and as soon as they had sung they went away without anybody knowing who they were; we three children also sang the chorus of the song that we sung in the morning, when they proposed grandpapa's health: we went home at about half past nine, and Mama came home at about eleven; we had holiday all the day, although we expected that we should have had to go to school all the day; during the day forty five visitors came and grandpapa got about thirty five letters.
Just less than a year after these happy scenes at his eightieth birthday, Unna died. The esteem in which he was held was evident in his obituary, in the 'Bradford Observer', Saturday, 8 January1881 which stated:
'........ in 1844, two years before any railway was opened to Bradford. Messrs. S.L. Behrens and Co. finally removed their Leeds business to Bradford, since which period up to the year 1870 Mr. Unna represented them here as head of the concern.
It was largely due to the energy, the keen insight into foreign requirements, and the general business capacity of German gentlemen like Mr. Unna that Bradford owed that development of the worsted trade which resulted in its assuming such a position of importance in the commercial history of the world....
.... In private life he was the embodiment of undemonstrative goodness. It is not for us to tell of the good deeds he has done in an unobtrusive manner. Few men of his means have probably given away so much in this way, and with so much discretion.
.... He was a member of the Council of the Chamber of Commerce, and attended its meeting until the removal to the present rooms in the Exchange. He was also one of the promoters of the Bradford District Bank. In the establishment and support of the Bradford Eye and Ear Hospital he took great interest. It was as a Freemason, however that Mr. Unna found scope for his energy and benevolence. He was the founder of the Harmony Lodge in Bradford and was at one time Grand Master.
.... Mr. Unna was a widower having lost his wife about three years ago. He leaves a son, Mr. Charles Unna and two daughters both of whom are married. The interment, we understand, will take place on Wednesday next in the Jewish ground at Scholemoor Cemetery, the last rites being attended with Masonic honours.'
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166. Miscellaneous Sites
A visitor to Lincoln might also investigate the extensive and impressive Roman remains in the city and the numerous medieval buildings and structures.Top
167. Palmerston House, 9 – 12 Palmerston Road – Premises of A&W Flatau (1889) and the Second World War Kosher Canteen
During the War the local Jewish community efforts included providing a kosher canteen for the Jewish service men in the town. The canteen provided 80 meals a day in May 1943. Many Jewish communities provided such facilities during the war, if they were able to.The canteen was convened in a factory premises (now converted into housing) and can be found near the junction of Palmerston Road with St. Edmund’s Road. The buildings have a double Jewish significance as this is one of several business address of A&W Flatau, this one dating back to 1889.
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168. Balliol Chapel
The chapel is of Jewish interest as much of the stained glass (including the east window of 1529) was given to Balliol in informal compensation by Deans of Cardinal College, starting with Dean John Higdon, for the loss of the former synagogue of the Jews in Oxford to Wolsey.One of the panels of stained glass in the north side of the chapel carries the date of 1536, which was shortly after the synagogue was taken without payment, and has the name of the master of the college at the time.
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169. The Bradford Reform Synagogue - Bowland Street
The Bradford Reform Synagogue is of exceptional interest, in terms of its history and its beautiful and elaborate Moorish architecture.The origins of the synagogue lie in the efforts of Rabbi Strauss. Once Strauss had succeeded in getting the Jewish Community functioning, he persuaded the congregation to raise money to build a synagogue.
Bernhard Cohen the head of Charles Semon & Co., paid £700 for a plot of land in Bowland Street, off Manningham Lane, which was to be used as a site for the synagogue. Building work on the site commenced on 5 January 1880, and on 6 April, 1880 Jacob Unna laid the foundation stone. Local Jewish residents including Jacob Moser gave very generously to the building fund. The synagogue was consecrated on March 29th 1881.
The Reform origins of the building are demonstrated in one important item -- the inclusion of an organ in the original appurtenances, as the Reform tradition used instruments as part of its liturgy.
The use of a Moorish style no doubt lay in the need to use an architectural style that was not redolent of church architecture -- the same impetus has led to the synagogue at Canterbury using an Egyptian style.
The following description comes from the local press report at the time of the consecration and gives a full description of the architecture and interior.
'The site of the synagogue is on the south side of Bowland Street, and is the gift of Mr. Bernhard Cohen. It admits of the correct orientation of the building, and is in many respects as suitable a site as could be desired.
The building consists of one large room, 44ft by 30ft and 27ft in height, entered on the west from a broad lobby containing double doors, to exclude the draught and the noise of traffic and also giving access to the back portion of the building and its premises. At the east end is a semi circular recess of 12ft in width, arched and vaulted, in which stands the Holy Ark, containing the Scrolls of the Law. The floor of this alcove is raised by several steps above the level of the main floor, and on which are placed two elaborately worked candlesticks of silver, the gift of Mrs. Dux, of Hildesheim presented to the synagogue by her son in law, Mr. Rothenstein, of Bradford. On the two sides of the ark stand two seven branched candlesticks of polished brass, to the north side the Rabbi's seat and desk, to the south a bench for those who are called to assist the reading of the law, both seats being of pitch pine. Suspended from the ceiling, and on silver chains, is a massive perpetual lamp of elegant design, with a suitable inscription taken from Exodus xxvii, 20 It is the gift of Mr. Emil Bielefeld, one of the wardens. A small vestry is obtained on the north side of the recess, with an outer doorway in Bowland Street, and on the south side is placed a staircase giving access to two school rooms, each 22ft by 17ft, placed at the south east angle of the site. A ladies' room and lavatory is obtained to the south west side underneath the lobby.
The style of architecture adopted is oriental in character, and to obtain contrast of colour bands of red stone are used in conjunction with the local ashlar. The synagogue has four two light windows on the north front and three on the south, the lights being divided by slender columns carrying tracery of appropriate character, enclosed by ogee headed arches. The principal doorway in the Bowland Street front is the feature that has a cusped and pointed arch, carried by four slender shafts of red stone, with carved capitals and well moulded bases. The spandrels are filled with carved arabesques, and the following inscription in Hebrew : - "Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation, which keepeth the truth, may enter in" (Isiah xxvi. 2). Above the cornice is carried a light stone balustrade.
A cornice, finished with a deep parapet, pierced and scalloped, is carried along the front, the centre portion being raised to admit a large panel, which contains a Hebrew inscription from Genesis xxviii, 17 "How awesome is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." Above is a circular medallion, enclosing the device known as the shield of David, "Magen David," an ornament also used in the vestry doorway and elsewhere.
Internally the synagogue is finished in plaster, with an arched and panelled ceiling arranged with a view to subsequent decoration. Four large chandeliers shed light upon the interior. Opposite the alcove containing the Holy Ark, a small gallery in an alcove over the lobby is obtained, where the organ is placed. The fittings throughout, of a substantial and elaborate character, are the gift of Mr. Moser. The windows are filled with ornamental glazing, sky tinted.
The principal feature internally is the apec containing the Holy Ark. It is spanned by an arch of horse shoe outline, with elaborate arabesques in plaster in the spandrels, and bound by a double border. The Ark is of Caen stone, rectangular in plan; it rests on a richly panelled dado, and the door is surmounted by a cusped Moorish arch springing from pilasters and red Devonshire marble. The tympanum of the arch is filled with pierced interfaced work, and the spandrels are enriched with arabesques, on the upper frieze are incised the words in Hebrew "Hear, 0 Israel, the Eternal is our God, the Eternal is One."(Deuteronomy vi, 4-9) The whole is surmounted by a carved cornice and dome, to the front of which two tablets of white marble are fixed, on which are incised, in Hebrew the Ten Commandments."
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170. 8 South Street – The Jewish Youth Club
During the War, in May 1943, Mr. Bach an evacuee, set up a Jewish Youth Centre at the above address which came to be used by a number of other Jewish organisations including the Youth Zionist Society, the Adult Zionist Society, Habonim and Maccabi Union. The house at the end of the street is a plain brick property, at the junction of Upper Thrift Street, is now less than prepossessing and has been divided into three flats.Top
171. Moses Montefiore's visit to Oxford
The King’s Head, Broad StreetIn 1825, Moses Montefiore, who was the towering Jewish personality of the 19th century, came to visit Oxford and stayed in the then Kings Head Inn, which was a reputable coaching inn. In events recorded in his wife Judith’s diary, he went to visit New College as a tourist the next day.
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172. Former Orthodox Synagogue (1906) -- 15-17, Spring Gardens
The Orthodox Synagogue of 1906, is close to the Bowland Street synagogue, off Manningham Lane. It still survives, but is now used as a madrassa, a Muslim religious school. Little of the interior survives, as it has been completely adapted for use as a school. However, the exterior features are still in evidence; there is a small tower above the entrance and a Hebrew inscription above the door, which quotes the famous verse, 'How goodly are your tents, O Israel'. The synagogue was closed in 1970 when the new orthodox synagogue opened in Springhurst Road.Top
173. The Hebrew Congregation – Overstone Road
The modern synagogue is to be found on Overstone Road. While the building is not of architectural merit, it does contain memorials and plaques taken from the old iron synagogue, including one to G.L. Michel the main founder of the synagogue and another to Morris Moss, one of the other founders of the synagogue.Top
174. Einstein’s Blackboard
The Hooke Museum of Science – Broad StreetA quick foray into the basement of the Hooke Museum of Science in Broad Street (next to the Sheldonian Theatre) provides a view of two significant Jewish exhibits. Einstein’s blackboard is hung on the west wall of the basement and close by is an exhibition case devoted to the discovery of the therapeutic uses of penicillin by Florey, Chain et al. The penicillin display is full of the improvised equipment used to culture the original penicillin, including an old sheep-dip tin.
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175. Homes of the 'Merchant Princes' -- Manningham and Little Horton
The Manningham and Manningham Lane areas and Little Horton, became the area of choice for the homes of the German and the German Jewish elite and the more successful classes of Bradford. The area was developed from the mid-1850s onwards as luxury villas and better quality residences designed by Bradford's leading architects. St Paul's Road, Wilmer Drive, Spring Bank and Oak Lane were favoured streets for the Germans. There were schools that catered for the sons of the Germans and German Jews, including a school in Manor House, Rosebery Road, as well as The High School, Hanover Square (later amalgamated with Bradford Grammar).Top
176. Northampton Railway Station - Northampton Castle
Northampton Castle was used to administer the medieval Northampton Jewish community and it also provided a place of refuge when Jews were under attack or threat of attack and was a long-term refuge for the Jews in the Barons War in 1264. The Castle is also of great importance as it was where the Third Crusade was launched, partly financed by the Jews of England, in 1268, which was to lead to much Jewish suffering in England and Europe.Most of the Castle was destroyed to make way for the extensive Victorian railway station, but a postern gate survives at the junction of Black Lion Way with St Andrew’s Road and some of the eastern earth works survive opposite St Peter’s Church. These scant relics are an important reminder of the former important associations with the medieval Jews of Northampton.
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177. Sir Isaiah Berlin’s Study
All Souls College, High StreetOn walking across the Radcliffe Square, via Catte Street, All Souls College is reached on the left hand side. The college uniquely comprises only elected fellows, with no students and is the home to many distinguished scholars and a very comfortable existence. Sir Isaiah Berlin (1909 – 1997) was for many decades the most distinguished of all its number and regarded as an Oxford institution himself. His study or ‘set’ was on the first floor on the corner of the junction of Catte Street with the High Street and can be seen from the street below (there is no public access to his former rooms).
Sir Isaiah was hailed as one of the most significant and influential of modern liberal and political thinkers, and was a historian of ideas, even though he published very little over the course of a long academic career. He argued for the freedom and a plural society, and the tolerance that must come with a plural society, in terms that have now percolated through into the popular consciousness. This anomaly between his reputation and his publication list was rapidly resolved by any one having personal contact with Sir Isaiah – he had the most remarkable and luminous mind, embracing a vast culture with exceptional critical faculties and he was ready to talk with people he met on the train or the street without pomp or self-importance.
Sir Isaiah’s career encompassed a childhood in pre-revolutionary Riga, Latvia and he was one of the few living relatives of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe and a descendant of the founding Chabad rabbis. His grandparents were also members of the Lubavitch movement. He was until his death the possessor of the tefillin of Rebbe DovBer, the second Rebbe – an item of near grail status for the Chassidic. As Sir Isaiah himself stated in a letter, ‘…my grandparents were members of the movement and I know about its history and doctrines from, as it were, ‘the inside’’.
Following his early years in Riga he had an early escape to England, and was schooled at St Paul’s, studied at Corpus Christi College, teaching Philosophy at New College, elected a fellow of All Souls and later the first President of Wolfson College and the subject of many awards and honours, including a knighthood and an Order of Merit.
Sir Isaiah recalled the circumstances of his election to his fellowship to me in a meeting in 1995. He said that a Bishop H-- in the college had given a speech opposing his election on the grounds that All Souls was a Christian college and that a Jew should not be appointed. However, Sir Isaiah added that he thought the speech had helped his cause as this one vote of opposition had won him five others!
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178. Birth Place of Sir William Rothstein- 4 Spring Bank, Mannigham Lane
The Jewish portrait painter and unofficial war artist, Sir William Rothstein, was born at 4 Spring Bank in 1872. His father; a textile merchant, Moritz Rothstein, had previously lived at Trinity Terrace, Little Horton, before moving to Spring Bank in 1871. Rothstein moved to 6 Walmer Villas in 1881. Rothstein painted many leading people of his time, and was an unofficial war artist during the First World War -- his works are still exhibited in London at the Tate and the ImperialWar Museum and Cartwright Hall. Spring Bank Place is just off the eastern side of Manningham Lane, one road junction south of the junction of Manningham Road with Marlborough Road.The Rothstein family later moved to 6 Walmer Villas, in 1881. Walmer Villas are nearly opposite Spring Bank Place on Manningham Lane and are semi-detached villas.
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179. Jacob's Coffee Houses, High Street
The circuit of Jewish Oxford can be continued by turning left into the famous High Street (ie. downhill), and continuing down past the Queen's College to the junction with Queen’s Lane. Here is the Queen’s Lane Coffee House, and almost directly opposite is 84 High Street, formerly famous as Cooper's Marmalade, more recently, a teddy bear shop and now the Grand Café.Both are sites of Jewish coffee houses. In 84 High Street, it is recorded on a marble plaque - to be seen on the right. high up on the wall as one walks into the shop - that, in 1651, a gentleman called Jacob set up a coffee shop, the first in England, on the site. It was established in what was then the Angel Inn, one of the principal coaching inns in Oxford.
In 1654 Cirques Jobson (who may be our Jacob) set up a shop across the street, on what is now the site of the Queen’s Lane Coffee House. It might be appropriate to complete ones Jewish tour here with a celebratory coffee, remembering, contrary to the advertising on the canopy, that it is an exaggeration to claim that there has been a coffee shop on the site since 1654.
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180. Humbert Wolfe, Writer and Poet - 4 Mount Royd
Humbert (Umberto) Wolfe CB, was the son of Martin Wolfe a German Jewish Merchant and his Italian Jewish mother, Consuela. He was a leading literary figure in Bradford, next to JB Priestley, and one of the most popular authors of the 1920's. While he converted he was always conscious of his Jewish back-ground. Mount Royd is just off the eastern side of Manningham Lane, two junctions north of the junction with Marlborough Road.Top
181. Miscellaneous Sights
Other sites worth seeing in and around Oxford include:1. In St Mary's Church on the High Street, there is a very discreet plaque which records that ‘During the Nazi regime in Germany and Austria, a large number of refugees came to Oxford. Many were of Jewish origins but members of a Lutheran or Reformed church. They wished to attend services in their own language and tradition…’ It is to be found on the left-hand side of the Chancel arch, under the organ loft.
2. At Brasenose College Chapel is an interesting depiction in a stained glass window of St Hugh of Lincoln, holding a distinctive pink model of Lincoln Cathedral. St Hugh was an enlightened and compassionate man, and a saviour of whole communities of English Jews. In the Middle Ages, Oxford was part of the Bishopric of Lincoln. The figure of St Hugh is a main panel, on the very right-hand side of the window, situated on the south side of the ante-chapel.
3. The most difficult Jewish site to find in Oxford is the ruined entrance of the former Osney Abbey, near Osney Island in Oxford. The entrance was reputedly the place where Robert of Reading met his death at the stake in 1222. A plaque set up in 1931, to the left of the entrance, records this fact, and reads: "Near this stone in Osney Abbey, Robert of Reading otherwise Haggai of Oxford suffered for his faith on Sunday 17th April 1222 AD, corresponding to 4 Iyyar 4982 AM." When I first saw it, it was a sad, derelict, and paradoxically atmospheric and picturesque spot, set before the burnt out remains of Osney Mill, and accumulated iron junk. It is on private property - a barge mooring - at the end of Mill Street, which is left off the Botley Road, just between the railway station and the canal, before the turning to Osney Island. When I revisited, it was still as difficult to find and some redevelopment had taken place around it. At the time of writing, it appears to be undergoing preservation.
4. In The Bodleian Library, there is one of the finest collections of Hebrew manuscripts in the world, including the first volume of the Mishnah Torah complete with Maimonides' signature. The collection also includes some significant medieval Anglo-Jewish manuscripts, including some that originate from Oxford. Hebrew manuscripts are frequently on display in the newly refurbished exhibition room in the Old Schools quadrangle of the Old Bodleian Library (open daily, except Saturday afternoons, and all day Sunday). Bona fide scholars can get temporary readers' permits, and call up most manuscripts from the main catalogue, as they desire. They are now being increasingly digitizsed and available on the web.
5. The Ashmolean Museum, on Beaumont Street is host to one of the most important, and enigmatic, Anglo-Jewish relic, the so called Bodleian Bowl. This bronze three-legged pot, with a Hebrew inscription around its middle, is thought to have come from the Colchester Jewry. It may be a gift from one of the sons of the great Rabbi Yehiel of Paris to the Colchester community, and has a religious, perhaps funereal, use.
6. The Wolvercote Cemetery (1894), off the head of the Banbury Road, at the edge of town, has a modest and well kept Jewish section, founded by Joel Zacharias, which is bounded by hedges. It has been enlarged twice in its history, once in the war, planning for casualties in case of air attack and again in 2000. The burial ground does not segregate the sexes though there are margins outside the boundary hedges which appear to contain some interments of non-Jewish partners, though this was not possible to confirm by context. There is no ohel, but the unconsecrated general prayer hall is now used – once it was realised it was not consecrated for Christian worship. The cemetery includes the graves of many notable Oxford academics (and town’s people), including Sir Isaiah Berlin. There is also one war grave to a Jewish navigator in the RAF, killed on duty, and there is also an inscription for Lieutenant Victor Jessel, killed in action in France in 1917. In addition, there are some to Holocaust survivors, who went on to make a new lives for themselves in Oxford. The Jewish cemetery is an attractive and decent place, close to the entrance to the cemetery and is either side of the path near to the entrance lodge. One of its most distinguishing features is the exceptional numbers of memorials recalling the places of births for many or its residents from all over pre-war Jewish Europe. This testifies to the fact that the refugee element of the community was exceptionally important to the post-war make-up of Oxford Jewry. The cemetery contains little funereal imagery, apart from some Kohanic hands (eg. for Lionel Kochan), such as may be found in other Jewish cemeteries. But the inscriptions are often individual and personalised, which is not the case in some other cemeteries where stricter formulae are enforced. The community organise and conduct the funeral services and interments. Overall, the cemetery is evocative of the distinctive Jewish life of Oxford and is well worth a detailed visit.
7. Yarnton Manor (The Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies) – Church Lane. The Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies was established by Dr David Patterson at the Oriental Institute in 1972 and then moved to 45 St Giles in Oxford. It is now an international centre for the study of Hebrew and Jewish studies and a recognised independent centre of Oxford University (2006). The OCHJS has a small number of students and a number of resident and visiting international scholars. The main building is an attractive restored Jacobean manor house in Cotswold stone with a number of ancilliary buildings.
The centre includes the Leopold Muller Library, which has an extensive collection of manuscripts and printed books, including an Anglo-Jewish section. The personal libraries of the late Rabbi Hugo Gryn and Rabbi Dr. Louis Jacobs are important collections, as well as the Foyle-Montefiore collection, which comprises the former library of the Judith Montefiore Theological College at Ramsgate and includes 4,000 books and pamphlets mainly of a theological nature. The Shandel/Lipson Collection, amplifies the Foyle-Montefiore Collections as it contains some of Montefiore’s salvaged personal papers, and other documents and material relevant to Montefiore’s life. Its most significant items are two diaries of Lady Judith Montefiore. It is anticipated that a number of very significant items relating to Sir Moses, which at the time of writing are in Switzerland, will be brought to Oxford by c.2009.
The OCHJS is also home to the National Anglo-Jewish Heritage Trail (JTrails) (2006)
8. The Home of Robert Maxwell - Maxwell as Samson and his Plaque - Headington Hall
Headington Hill was home to two of the leading Jewish figures of the 20th century in Oxford, both Jewish refugees by origin, though the differences between Maxwell and Berlin and their principles and outlook, invites a comparison between the ‘Gods and the Giants’ of the Greek myth, especially as Maxwell had himself portrayed as Samson in stained glass at the Hall.
Maxwell moved into Headington Hall in 1959 and restored the house including moving an old fireplace from his old offices in London to his new headquarters. He apparently put cinema screens in many of the rooms. He also replaced a damaged stained glass window on the stairs of the house with a new one on the theme of Samson at the gates of Gaza, by an Israeli artist. Maxwell is the model for this Samson and there is a reference to Greek myth as Maxwell’s Samson has a pendant with a portrait of Penelope. Shortly before his death, in 1991, he sold Pergamon to Elsevier, though Pergamon still has some interests on the site.
While much of the Hall is out of view to the public, there is an unintended memorial plaque to Maxwell in a flowerbed, at the entrance to Headington Hall. However, the sentiments and wording were not of his choosing and relate to his bitter conflict with the journalists and print unions. For several years one could see a grey and motley huddle of union activists picketing the entrance to the Hall in all weathers.
The plaque reads:
At this site, between May 1989
and September 1992, 23 members
of the National Union of Journalists
mounted a continuous and united
picket in defence of union rights
at Robert Maxwell's Pergamon Press
His empire collapsed, the union lives on.
9. The Home of Sir Isaiah Berlin - Headington House, Old High Street, Headington
Sir Isaiah Berlin lived at Headington House from 1956 when he married Mrs Aline Halban, (who had two sons) and moved into her home. He lived there for the next 41 years until his death. Headington House is a fine Georgian mansion, built in 1783, and formerly stood in extensive grounds. The house cannot be seen from the road. There are currently plans to have a blue plaque placed at the property to celebrate its most famous inhabitant.
10. The Home of Herbert Loewe – 29 Beaumont Street
Herbert Loewe lived in a Georgian terraced house close to the Oriental Institute, where he held court for the Oxford Jewish society from c.1920, when he returned from war service in India, to 1931, when he left for Cambridge. His sons, including Lionel (1891-1987) and Michael (b.1922), both went on to distinguish themselves as Enigma code-breakers and linguists, at Bletchely Park, during the Second World War. Raphael, (b. Calcutta, 1919) became a distinguished Jewish historian and a president of the Jewish Historical Society of England.
11. The Home of Rev. Moses Hirsch Segal – 6 Tackley Place
The Rev. Segal was perhaps the first rabbi to the Oxford congregation in modern times and, in 1907, he was listed as living at the above address, which is off the Woodstock Road, between the Warnborough and Kingston Roads, though he also lived near Hinksey.
12. The Homes of Cecil Roth – 1 Garford Road and 31 Charlbury Road
Cecil Roth first settled in a house in 1 Garford Road, until at least the early 1940s, but then moved to Charlbury Road, where his traditional of Saturday afternoon teas continued until his retirement from Oxford in 1965 and his move to edit the Encyclopedia Judaica in Jerusalem. Roth also held a vast annual fresher’s tea party, having worked through the matriculation lists and picked out likely sounding names to invite.
13. The Wartime home of Walter Eytan - 149d, Banbury Road
Walter Eytan (1910 - 2001), originally Walter George Ettinghausen, came from a German Jewish family that settled in Oxford in the early 20th century.
His father had in fact first come up to Oxford as a student at Queen’s in 1901. During the war, Ettinghausen was a don at Queen’s and was engaged in secret work. In 1941, he was then called to the Enigma code-breaking centre at Bletchley Park, where he led the Hut 4 team with distinction. Hut 4 provided immediate translations of codes just broken by Hut 8 - Alan Turing’s hut. Ettinghausen encouraged the Zionists among the Jewish decoders and went to Israel as soon as the war ended. He was Director of the Israeli Foreign Ministry for 11 years and was, latterly, the Israeli ambassador to France.
14. Commemorative Plaque to Arthur Lehman Goodhart – Logic Lane, University College.
If a visitor walks down the cobbled public right of way through University College, connecting High Street and Merton Street, there is a commemorative plaque to Professor Goodhart (1891-1978) set into the new building on the sharp turn in the lane. Goodhart was the first Jew to become head of house in Oxford when he became Master of University College in 1951. He was a famous common lawyer and was made the Professor of Jurisprudence in 1931, (which gave a fellowship at University College) and which he held until his appointment as Master. He was the third Jew to have a fellowship in Oxford, just preceding Berlin. Goodhart was an American citizen and his father was a millionaire stockbroker. Goodhart was succeeded as Master by Lord Goodman another notable Oxford Jewish academic.
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182. The Carlton Hotel -- Kinder Transport Hostel -- Parkfield Road, Manningham
After the atrocities of Kristallnacht, on November 10th 1938, when the Nazis burnt Synagogues, attacked, murdered and imprisoned Jews in Germany and Austria, a desperate attempt was made to rescue, 10,000 young Jewish children from the Nazis.'Childrens' Transports' ('Kinder transports') were organised and by the outbreak of war nearly 10,000 children had arrived in Britain. The Bradford Jewish community responded to the emergency by purchasing a large house, the former Carlton Hotel, in Parkfield Road, Manningham and turning it into a hostel.
Originally it was intended to be for girls. However the representatives from Bradford, after going down to Dovercourt in Suffolk where the young people were billeted in Warner's Holiday camp, brought 25 teenage boys back to Bradford.
The hostel was financed by the Bradford Jewish Community, but two men, Oswald Stroud, the son of Rabbi Strauss, and Joe Morris, were the driving forces behind the project.
In 1989, to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Hostel, fifteen of the original boys came back to Bradford and the BBC made a documentary of their lives and experiences.
The Hostel today is the Carlton House, a drug rehabilitation centre. In the 1980s the back entrance to the Hostel (and the front entrance before the recent renovations) still had a mezuzah, on the right hand side of the door frame.
One of the former children, who arrived at the hostel gave this interview in 1984. He describes his life in Germany, escape to Great Britain in 1939 and life in the Bradford Hostel.
'Well 1 was about thirteen, fourteen. So we were starting to get out of Germany and everyone more or less went out the best way they could. Now, 1 came to England with the Children's Refugee Transport that meant the Jewish community in the United Kingdom arranged to take on children, because their parents etc. couldn't get a visa. So 1 came in fact in February 1939, with the Children's Transport, and 1 was put into a camp which had been rigged up which was a holiday camp in Harwich... From there we were distributed, either into hostels, or homes, or adoption; or whatever and the Jewish community of Bradford opened a hostel for young boys which happened to be in
Parkfield Road which is now a hotel... there were twenty boys which came into the hostel... The hostel itself was very comfortable... we had a warden there who was an ex-German, Jewish solicitor, which Is why he looked after us the Governor of the Committee was a certain Mr Stroud who is a well known personality here in Bradford. It was basically financed by the Jewish community.'
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183. The Scholemoor Cemetery, Reform and Orthodox Jewish Cemeteries -- Scholemoor Road
The Scholemoor municipal cemetery contains two Jewish sections, one Reform and the other Orthodox. Unusually, the Reform section, at the top of the hill, pre-dates the Orthodox, at the bottom of the hill. The Reform section is of considerable interest, as it contains the tombs of the great and good of the German Jewish community and the grave monuments are remarkable for their individuality and in some cases, imposing grandeur. The cemetery is in an attractive setting with an interesting small ohel building. The more modern Orthodox section, is more modest, and lacks the flamboyant manifestation of ego seen above.Before the foundation of the Reform cemetery Jewish burials took place in the un-consecrated section of the cemetery, though it is likely that most took place in Leeds or Manchester. The Bradford Cemetery, colloquially known as 'Undercliffe Cemetery', has an un-consecrated section, where there were over 10,000 interments between 1858 and 1874. At most there were some 20 Jews among these 10,000 people. They included members of the Hertz family, Hermann Koppel; an infant of 3 weeks, whose father or grandfather was the first person to be buried in the Jewish section at Scholemoor; Willy Leo Bielefeld, aged 4 months, of Eldon Place whose father was to become a warden of the Synagogue and Isaac Schloestein, aged 41, resident of Eldon Terrace.
The most important tomb in this section is that of Jacob Behrens, which is a massive and imposing edifice of sky-scraper dimensions, surrounded by even taller obilisks.
The cemetery records show that no Jewish person officiated at the funerals however the relatives may have said prayers in Hebrew with a Christian minister in attendance.
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184. Reform Section (1877)
The Reform section is some 200 yards from the main gate of the cemetery, along the boundary wall and had good access. It is easily found if you turn immediately right at the gate and follow the path.The cemetery, which is compact being less than a quarter of an acre in size, contains the tombs of the leading Jewish citizens of Bradford, including the 'merchant princes', whose lives have been described earlier. The tombstones for the 'merchant princes', are exceptional for their size and grandeur, or for their individual design, though they largely follow the general styles of tombs in the surrounding necropolis. The inscriptions are largely in English, with some English and Hebrew and exceptionally some German.
The most imposing memorial is that to Charles Semon, Bradford's first Jewish mayor. It is a towering, polished granite memorial, at least 20 feet high -- one of the largest Jewish tombs in the country. The inscription is modest, even minimalist, even if the stone work is not! The tombstone of Rabbi Strauss is not far off, and is a tasteful, inscribed, granite column. The ranks of the industrialists of Bradford include the rustic-stone tomb of Jacob Moser, the industrialist and Zionist. The stone stele, that marks Jacob Unna's tomb, may also be seen, as well as the tombstones of Leopold Fulda, Justus Heyn, Sylvester Sichel whose tomb is a stone pyramid!
Of other members of the Jewish community, the tomb of Henry Arensberg can be seen on the edge of the cemetery. Henry was the founder of Arensberg Jewellers.
An unusual gravestone for August Hamburg (d. 1885), is exceptional for being purely in German and may be the only Jewish gravestone in the country to be entirely in this language. One other gravestone has German and Hebrew elements (Hugo Dreshfeld, d. 1905). The memorial of Harry Kramrisch notes that he was Jugoslav consul for Bradford and that he died in Abergavenny in 1946.
The gravestone of Bertha and Moritz Rothstein, the parents of the artist Sir William Rothstein also stands in the cemetery, and is notable for its fine calligraphic style of lettering and its decoration motif at the top of the stone, which shows two suns, or large stars, whose rays extend to and intersect four smaller stars below -- this is most likely to be an original design by Rothstein himself and the motif probably represents his parents (the large stars) and their children -- touching tribute to his parents and a previously unattributed example of his work.
The stone ohel, has a Star of David window, and a Hebrew inscription and is a pleasing example of its kind.
There is a modern, separate extension of the cemetery some yards away, with intervening Christian burials and this section has additional modern burials. The new plot may be identified by its wrought iron gates with a pair of Stars of David that can be seen from the original cemetery.
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185. Orthodox Section
The Orthodox section of the cemetery lies at the bottom of the hill next to the main entrance of the cemetery. While it is larger than the Reform section it is more modest over all, with the tombstones and memorials largely conforming to the more modest memorial requirements of orthodoxy, though some of the older memorials while modest in size are notable for their ornamentation. There is a small modern brick ohel at the entrance to the site.The tombstones commemorate the local Bradford families, and like many Jewish cemeteries suggest other avenues of research in Bradford Jewish history. One of the most extensive Jewish families of Bradford were the Maisels family, who were a very extensive clan by head-stone count and indeed, the tombstone of Abraham Maisels (d. 1944) notes that he was a founder and President of the Orthodox congregation. Some of the tombstones note family lost in the Holocaust, and the recent tombstone of Abram Aronovsky, notes the particular connection of Bradford with the victims and survivors of the Kaunas (Kovno) Ghetto.
Another memorial, to Ben Kline (d.1918) notes his membership of the Bradford Lodge (No. 68?) of the Grand Order of Israel and carries the emblem of the lodge at the head of the stone -- another reminder of the importance of the masons to Victorian and Edwardian Jews and a significant tombstone in illustrating this facet of Jewish history. It is recorded that leading Bradford Jews were buried with Masonic rites.
Of the War dead, there is a memorial to Pte Joseph Bernstein who died in France in 1917. There is a memorial to a Bradford Jewish airman of World War II who went missing in action (Pilot Officer, Julius Bergson, 1942). There is one formal war-grave to E. Ohrenstein, 'A Victim Of German Facism', (d. 1945), another RAF man.
One of the more imposing memorials, notes that the son of Harris Silman; Jonah Sivan Silman of Jerusalem, was attach
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186. Orthodox Synagogue - Springhurst Road, Shipley
The Springhurst Road Orthodox Synagogue was built in 1970 and consecrated by Chief Rabbi Jakobovits, on 21 June 1970. This particular Synagogue was the replacement for the Spring Gardens Synagogue. The new building is a modern brick structure, with a striking menorah on the exterior, with the interior laid out in a traditional format including a women's gallery. There is also a Memorial plaque to the victims of the Holocaust.Top
187. The Site of the old Synagogue -- Northampton Street
The site of the old synagogue has been nearly obliterated by the depredations of the last war and of modern redevelopment. The site of the synagogue largely lays under the new dual carriageway along Snargate Street, just west of the York Street roundabout. This is close to the sea front and partly over River Dour.The building was raised at the corner of Northampton Street, near the head of the inner harbour. and was designed by the architect, W.E.Williams. Contemporary reports note that it was a small and neat classical building of some 50' by 30' with adjoining vestibule, to the front, and over this was a committee room. The plans for the building also included provisions for a 'bath room' - by bathroom it is possible that the Christian reporter is referring to a mikvah or ritual bath. The synagogue could accommodate 250 people in the main body of the building and the galleries and cost 1000 guineas.
One of the peculiarities of the building was that it was partly built over the River Dour, which ran through a 'strong tunnel' beneath the northern part of the synagogue.
In the main building, the Ark was in the East of the building (though the building was not on a true East - West line) with three stained glass windows and a highly decorated dome above it. The building was richly decorated mostly in white, blue and gold and the galleries had ornate painted iron work railings.
At the opening of the synagogue, the place was filled out. There were many dignitaries. Local and national Jewish figures were there, including the Chief Rabbi, Dr Adler. Leading Christians of Dover and representatives of the Harbour Board were also there in force.
The Torah Scrolls were processed in with much song and the seemingly obligatory entourage of little boys with blue scarves scattered the obligatory flowers from baskets before the steps of the procession.
The Chief Rabbi's sermon made much emphasis (as was customary in the still new era of Jewish Emancipation) on the good feeling existing between the Christian and Jewish community and the patriotism of the Jewish people, so that they were prepared not only to defend their country but 'even to lay down their lives for it.'
Afterwards the official guests (some 200-300 persons) partook of a 'magnificent collation' in the Wellington Hall where many toasts were offered in thanks to the Harbour Board. It was judged that, 'The whole proceedings passed off to the credit of the promoters and to the highest satisfaction of the all who participated therein.'
Putting aside the high rhetoric of the occasion, there is no doubt that the building of the new synagogue, needing as it did the considerable support and good will of the Christian community, was in many ways emblematic of the great legal and social advances that the Anglo-Jewish community had made in the preceding half-century.
Part of the site of the synagogue and its garden can be seen. It lies just south west of the York Street roundabout on Snargate Street (i.e. on the seaward side of the road) behind the row of Victorian buildings that make Cambridge Terrace.
The easiest way to find it is to walk towards the sea, along Bench Street, through the pedestrian subway at New Bridge and exit to the right, across from where the River Dour disappears into its tunnel. At street level near to the exit steps from the subway is a small entry to the left (a public right of way) leading behind Cambridge Terrace. The unkempt 'garden' is the general site of the synagogue and its gardens, though the main bulk if not all of the synagogue building lay in what is the car park over the wall.
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188. The old Jewish Quarter - Snargate Street
On leaving the site of the synagogue and going south-west on the dual carriage way, the A20 to Folkestone, a turning to the right is quickly reached, which leads on to a surviving stretch of Snargate Street running parallel to the new dual carriageway.Snargate originated in the 14th century, as a commercial street built on the then beach. It was the main shopping street until World War I, close to the harbour installations and the military dockyards, as well as the military garrison high on the cliffs behind. In short it was an ideal location for the Jewish community, though like so many port towns the ambience of the place would have been a lively admixture of vice and virtue . Today the street has declined from its former importance and it has suffered radical changes due to the wars and re-development. It seems that many of the Jewish homes and businesses were towards the western end of the street much of which had disappeared. However the street still retains a degree of character, as some of the original housing stock survives along the street with some small shops and pubs. One unique feature of the street was that many of the houses backing onto the chalk cliffs had extensive cellars and chambers cut into the living chalk behind.
Another attraction is at the very western end of the street. Here is the so called 'Grand Shaft' a 140 foot, triple-staired shaft providing a short cut from the old garrison above on the cliff tops of the Western Heights, to sea level. This was built between 1806-9, to enable troops to be rapidly deployed from barracks to the Drop Redoubt fort in the harbour in case of invasion. However 'as the invasion never came the shaft was used as a quick route for soldiers to the public houses and brothels of Snargate Street and the Pier District.'
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