2011
TM1644 : Jewish burial ground in Salthouse Lane, Ipswich
taken 13 years ago, near to Ipswich, Suffolk, England
Jewish burial ground in Salthouse Lane, Ipswich
This small burial ground is situated in the middle of a car park off Salthouse Lane. Its red brick boundary walls date from around 1764, with later repairs. The burial ground has been in use from 1796 to 1855.
The Grade II listed walls - known as Rogers' Court after the then owner - enclose the burial ground on four sides and access is via a (padlocked) iron gate on the east side. There are two boundary marker stones set into the walls, said to date from the reign of George II. The marker on the exterior right side of the entrance gate is for St Clements Parish and the one in the internal left corner of the north wall is for St Mary Key. There is a buttress on the inner side of the north wall.
The burial ground contains 36 tombstones of limestone, marble and Yorkstone, including 3 smaller footstones. The stones are all upright and arranged in seven rows in largely chronological order, and have inscriptions in Hebrew or Hebrew and English. Two or three stones have broken at the top, and the inscriptions on a number of the stones are no longer legible due to weathering. The earliest dated tombstone is 1797/8 (Jewish year 5558), and the latest is 1850. The stones are dedicated to members of the Ipswich Jewish community and other Jews from Harwich (2), Bury St Edmunds, Colchester (3) and one from London. At least three of the stones are dedicated to children. One of the burials was Sarah Lyon or Lyons, who died in 1808 at the age of 105. She was famous for her ripe old age and John Constable painted her portrait in 1804 when she was 101 years old. She was said to be the earliest Jewish settler in Ipswich in modern times.
The burial ground was closed on 1 July 1855 under the Burial Act, and a Jewish plot was acquired in the municipal cemetery for future burials. After the closure the burial ground fell into disrepair, and was used as a poultry yard and later a refuse dump. The prayer hall that adjoined the burial ground had also fallen into a state of neglect and was claimed by a neighbour as his own property. In 1912, the firm of R & W Pauls (later BOCM Pauls) owned all the land and buildings surrounding the burial ground. After WWII the adjoining tenements were demolished but the burial ground was preserved and maintained by BOCM Pauls for the Board of Deputies.
Image classification
(about):
Geograph
This page has been
viewed about
1081 times