MERSEYMART, WEST DERBY & TUEBROOK EDITION, 2 DECEMBER 2010

Business Backs Cemetery Bid
Clean-up boost ahead of visit
by Neil Hodgson

THE restoration of Kensington’s Jewish Cemetery has been boosted by Merseyside’s Business In The Community operation.

The organisation marshalled housing trusts and associations, their clients and staff and community groups in a clean-up of the Deane Road site as part of the national Make A Difference Day campaign.

The cemetery opened in 1837 and is the resting place of some of the most influential Victorians who shaped the city of Liverpool, including David Lewis, founder of the department store, and Moses Samuel, founder of H Samuel jewellers. Its last recorded burial took place in 1929 but has since been abandoned to nature.

However, an eight-year campaign to restore the site by Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation is seeking lottery funding towards its cause. Ahead of a bid inspection, the Business In The Community team launched the clean up.

Volunteers, materials, tools and transport were provided by Riverside Housing, Morison’s Facilities, Liverpool Housing Trust and Adullam Homes and Merseyside police’s community team. Local activists provided the labour for the exercise, which cleared rubbish and tidied up the undergrowth. The team was also able to uncover previously “lost” headstones, revealing some of the many interesting stories surrounding those at rest in the burial ground.

Historian and geologist [that should be genealogist! - Ed] Saul Marks, is leading the restoration campaign.

He said: “Our clean-up day was a great success. Business in the Community arranged for personnel from several agencies to come together to make a real difference in our bid for lottery funding. Without this hard work, we would never have been able to make the cemetery so respectable for the Heritage Lottery Fund visit.”

Mr Marks added: “All who participated had an enjoyable time and we look forward to working with the various organisations in the future.”