Liverpool Jewish Community

Upper Frederick Street - This is the earliest burial ground for which any definitive information exists.  The adjoining house was used as the Liverpool Hebrew Congregation’s synagogue from 1789 to 1807; however, burials from the early 1770s to the first years of the nineteenth century took place there.  Nine records are included here.  The cemetery no longer exists; remains were re-interred at Broadgreen in 1923.

Oakes Street - The Liverpool Congregation made use of the burial ground in Oakes Street from 1802 until the opening of Deane Road in 1837.  200 records are included for this cemetery.  It appears that the cemetery included only 150 plots and remains were not found in all of these when they were exhumed and re-buried at Broadgreen in 1904.  Information on age at death is missing for a number of entries in the congregation’s death register, so a number of these records may relate to infant and neo-natal deaths.

Solomon mausoleum - Dr Samuel Solomon made his fortune as the inventor and distributor of Dr Solomon’s Balm of Gilead – a ‘cure-all’ for many ailments.  In the early nineteenth century he purchased land at Mossley Hill for a family mausoleum.  Four burial records, relating to Jewish members of his family, are included here.  The mausoleum no longer exists; remains were re-interred at the West Derby Road (non-Jewish) cemetery, which is now parkland known as Grant Gardens.

Deane Road - This cemetery was the main burial ground for the Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation from 1837 to 1904. Burials in reserved plots continued until 1929.  Of the 1720 burials which took place there, 1,430 (non-stillbirth or neo-natal) records are included here; only 54% of these are associated with deaths at age 20 years or more.

Broadgreen - This is the current cemetery of the Old Hebrew Congregation, in use since 1904.  Of the 1,870 burials which took place here by December 2018, 1,820 records are included here (those omitted are stillborn or neo-natal deaths).

Green Lane - The New Hebrew Congregation split from the Liverpool (Old) Hebrew Congregation in the mid 1830s.  The new congregation established the Green Lane cemetery in 1840, and it remained the congregation’s sole burial ground until 1921, though reserved plot burials continued until 1952.  The cemetery still exists but it has been sealed to prevent unauthorised access.  Records for 420 burials (based on the 1979 survey) are included here.  Based on an estimated number of stillbirth and neo-natal interments and the number of adult graves which could not be accessed/recorded in 1979, it is likely that more than 900 interments actually took place there.

Long Lane - The New Hebrew (Hope Place) Congregation opened the Long Lane cemetery in 1921, as the Green Lane burial ground could not be expanded.  It remained that congregation’s burial ground until the closure of Hope Place’s successor, the Greenbank Drive Synagogue in 2008.  The cemetery remains active, as a burial location for former Greenbank Drive members and reserved plot interments.  Records for about 920 burials are included (to the end of 2018).  No information relating to stillbirth/neo-natal interments exists for this cemetery though, based on the period covered, about 30 such burials would be expected.  Also excluded are records for about 20 unmarked plots which may be occupied but, due to a fire at Greenbank Drive Synagogue, no register records exist.

Rice Lane - This cemetery was the first non-synagogue associated burial ground founded in Liverpool.  The Liverpool Hebrew Burial Society opened its cemetery in 1896.  It was in regular use, primarily by members of the smaller chevrot, until 1981; occasional burials continued until 2004.  About 4,710 interments have taken place there.  However, 940 relate to stillbirth, neo-natal, and other (child) burials which have no specific plot reference; thus only 3,770 records are accessible here.

Lower House Lane - A second non-affiliated cemetery opened in 1927, under the auspices of the Liverpool Hebrew Federated Burial Society.  This burial ground (officially West Derby Municipal Cemetery – Jewish Section) is owned by the Liverpool City Council.  It was in regular use by ‘Federated’ members until 1991;  since then reserved plot burials have continued, one as recently as 2015.  Fifty stillbirth and neo-natal burials of the 1,700 interments at this cemetery are excluded from the 1,650 records which are included here.

Allerton Reform - The Liverpool Liberal/Progressive (latterly Reform) Congregation was the first to reserve an area within the vast Allerton Municipal Cemetery in South Liverpool.  Use of the Reform burial ground commenced in 1930, and it remains in active use.  About 230 records (to the end of 2018) are included here.  These include known Jewish cremations at the nearby Springwood Crematorium, irrespective of whether remains are interred in the Reform cemetery.

Springwood - More recently, orthodox organisations have reserved areas within the Allerton Cemetery complex.  Officially Allerton Municipal Cemetery – Jewish sections, these areas are known simply as ‘Springwood Cemetery’.  The Childwall Hebrew Congregation started to use the southern section in 1951.  The Allerton Congregation shared this section from 1968.  With the Rice Lane cemetery nearing capacity, the Merseyside Jewish Representative Council arranged for further land at Springwood to be made available; the ‘communal’ section (the eastern part of the northern section at Springwood) was brought into use in 1974; the ‘Federated’ society also used this section, when Lower House Lane reached capacity.  This section (now administered by Merseyside Jewish Community Care) remains the active burial ground for those without main-synagogue affiliation, or with reserved ‘Federated’ plots.  Since 2009 and 2015 respectively, the Allerton and Childwall congregations have made use of the western part of the northern section for new burials, with only reserved plot interments taking place in the southern section. 2,060 records are included for the Springwood cemetery overall to the end of 2018.