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Jewish Burial Ground (Cleared),
between Eastgate and Russell Street,
Gloucester, Gloucestershire.

Church History

This Cemetery or Burial Ground was founded before 1785, but we understand it was closed before 1938.

"By 1785 the Jews had a cemetery to the north of Barton Street, which also served Jewry in Stroud and Ross-on-Wye (Herefordshire) and was apparently not used after 1887". In 1938, the Jewish Community gave the Burial Ground to the community, and it became a playing field for St Michael's School, a National School in Russell Street, which opened in 1848.

The location of the graveyard can be seen on Old Maps, though there is no trace of it today, as the area has been redeveloped. However apparently there is (or was) an inscription on the wall of the playground saying:

"This ground, formerly a Jewish cemetery, was given by the Jews of this country in the year 1938 as a playground for children".

The remains, and monuments were moved to the new Cemetery at Coney Hill; but a transcription of the is MIs available on the Cemetery Scribes website. St Michael's school was closed in 1962, when pupils moved to a new school in Kingsholm, and until recently, its premises were in use by a plumbing company called 'Creepers', which used to be in Barton Street. The burial ground appears to have been behind the building, which was on the south west side of Russell Street, opposite Bedford Street, but its site was presumably cleared during the late 2000s, when the former school building was demolished, and replaced by housing.

There was a Synagogue building in Eastgate Street (then Barton Street), but by 1802 it had moved to Mercy place, off Southgate Street, for which see the separate entry in this database. [Source: the Victoria County History series: A History of the County of Gloucester, Volume 4: The City of Gloucester (1988), pp.335 (Judaism and Islam), John Williams, Rosemary Lockie, et al.]

Denomination

Now or formerly a Cemetery (Jewish).

In most cases this will be a record of its original consecration.

Maps

This Cemetery was located at OS grid reference SO8349018326. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Jewish Burial Ground (Cleared), Gloucester shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Gloucester shown on a Google Map.
• Streetmap.co.uk (arrow on map shows the Place of Worship's location) (verified 2018-10-15)
• Bing (Ordnance Survey option) (verified 2018-10-13)
• Bing Maps ('Bird's Eye' View) (verified 2018-10-15)
• Ordnance Survey "getamap" (NB some of the 'Change Map' options may require a subscription) (verified 2018-10-15)
• OpenStreetMap (Maps © OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA) (verified 2018-10-15)
• A Vision of Britain Through Time - useful for Boundary Changes (verified 2018-10-15)
• www.magic.gov.uk (Modern Maps with various overlays) (verified 2018-10-15)

Resources

I have found many websites of use whilst compiling the information for this database. Here are some which deserve mention as being of special interest for Gloucester, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• A database of headstone inscriptions from Jewish Cemeteries throughout the UK - Cemetery Scribes (null) (verified 2018-11-15)
• The Victoria County History series: A History of the County of Gloucester, Volume 4: The City of Gloucester (null) (verified 2018-11-06)

The above links were selected and reviewed at the time I prepared the information, but please be aware their content may vary, or disappear entirely. These factors are outside my control.