JEWISH TELEGRAPH (LIVERPOOL EDITION), 20 FEBRUARY 2009

Cemetery’s £220,000 Bid
Top actress Miriam Margolyes joins call for Lottery funding

A BID for £220,000 Heritage Lottery funding has been submitted to restore historic Deane Road cemetery.

It has been made by local Labour councillor Louise Baldock, the member for Fairfield and Kensington, who is part pf seven person committee which has spent three years preparing the bid.

It is backed by five patrons – solicitor Rex Makin, a Freeman of Liverpool, actress Miriam Margolyes, Dame Lorna Muirhead, the Lord Lieutenant of Liverpool, Liverpool Riverside MP Louise Ellman and agriculture minister and Liverpool Wavertree MP Jane Kennedy within whose constituency the cemetery stands.

Cllr Baldock said: “This cemetery is of immense significance throughout Liverpool and we need the full weight of the people of the city behind us, praying or crossing their fingers or doing whatever they think will get us what we need.”

Deane Road, which is off Edge Lane, was bought by the Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation which held its first burial there in 1837, continuing on a regular basis until 1904. Many of those buried there are some of the early leaders of the Jewish community, industrialists, entrepreneurs, civic leaders and philanthropists who made an impact locally, nationally and internationally. They include department store founder David Lewis and Charles Mozley, Liverpool’s first Jewish Lord Mayor.

The huge ornate archway, now a Grade II listed structure needs repair along with a small stone wall and cast iron railings with spear heads which are also listed.

After 1904, only those with reserved plots were buried at Deane road and the final recorded burial took place in 1929.

For many years Deane Road had been in a state of disrepair and a number of restoration attempts were unsuccessful until revived interest was shown by the Groundwork Trust in 2002. The cemetery had been subject to petty vandalism and fly tipping, some tombstones had toppled and Japanese knotweed and other foliage covered much of the site.

In 2007 a committee was formed and last year more than 200 people of all faiths attended an open day. Previously there had been volunteer days to help tidy up.

A Friends of Deane Road group has been set up and the restoration project will be managed by synagogue warden and trained genealogist Saul Marks.

If the bid is successful they hope to open the restored cemetery to the local community, especially schoolchildren to learn various parts of the curriculum from religious studies to the Victorian era.