JEWISH CHRONICLE, 24 DECEMBER 2010

£494k boost for cemetery in Mersey
by Jessica Elgot

A LIVERPOOL Jewish cemetery will have its important historic features restored by a £494,000 grant.

The money from the Heritage Lottery Fund will restore the Grade II listed archway at Dean Road Jewish Cemetery [what about our extra E?! - Ed] and repair broken and fallen gravestones. Public access will be restored to the site, which has been closed to visitors for years. The cemetery had been the target of fly-tipping and vandalism and a campaign to restore it was formally launched three years ago.

The accessibility will be improved by a landscaping scheme and paths will be built around the cemetery. The grant will also pay for a seating area and a new building for visitors and volunteers. A special ceremony to mark the grant was held with Liverpool Wavertree MP Luciana Berger, and attended by Cllt Louise Baldock, the project co-ordinator and Saul Marks, chairman of the Deane Road cemetery committee. [actually, this was not a "special ceremony" but just the press photocall! - Ed]

Mr Marks, who has led the project since March 2005, said: “It’s just wonderful and it’s a huge achievement. The project has so many ramifications, it’s a heritage project, a Jewish project, an environment project and an urban regeneration project. It’s been a long time coming too; some members of the team have been working on it for eight years.”

The cemetery in Kensington is the final resting place of some of Liverpool’s best-known entrepreneurs. The last burial was in 1929.

Actress Miriam Margolyes, solicitor Rex Makin and MPs Louise Ellman and Jane Kennedy are among those who supported the bid to fund a restoration.