For informmation on the Jewish community and congregations of Norwish, see Norwich on JCR-UK.
Norwich Synagogue, 3 Earlham Road Norwich NR2 3RA
Henry Levine, The Norwich Hebrew Congregation 1840-1960: A Short History. (Published 1961. The Millennium Library's Local Studies Centre at the Forum in Norwich has a copy as rare book) .[Mar 2013]
CEMETERIES:
- Norwich Medieval Jewish Burial Ground:
Ernest A. Kent, 'The Gildencroft in Norwich', in Norfolk Archaeology, vol. XXIX (published 1946) .[Mar 2013]
A Jewish Cemetery in Norwich, not far from the ancient synagogue, was in use from some time after 1177 until 1290.
- Norwich Old Jews Burial Ground, Horns Lane, corner Ber Street, Norfolk NR1
Only vestiges remain of this cemetery, which was opened in about 1750 and closed in 1826. The exact location (at the rear of 34 Ber Street) is uncertain. [David Shulman, Webmster JCR-UK August 2016]
The following is the text of a letter to the Editor of the Jewish Chronicle, published on April 22, 1842:
"As an Israelite, I deem it my duty to call your attention to a subject, as I trust by giving publicity to it in your valuable paper, it may be the means of accomplishing the object I have in view. I do not know whether you are aware that in Norwich there are two burial grounds belonging to the Jewish nation, one is the property of the congregation; the other situated in Mariners' Lane is a very ancient one, and was granted by the corporation of the said city, about a century and a half ago to Mr. Solomon Levy and his heir, upon payment of ten shillings per annum to the said body. It appears that the last of the family interred there, was a Mr. Lion Levy, and that was about sixteen years ago. The annual quit rent, small as it is, has been neglected by the family - the ground has been recently let to a gardener, who has already taken down several grave-stones and made steps of them for his door. My reason for making this appeal, is merely to state, that if the ground is not shortly reclaimed (the payment would not amount to more than ten pounds), the bodies, at least eight hundred in number, will be disinterred. I dare say your readers are not aware that this place was the burial ground, until within the last half century, for all the Eastern counties, and I consider that its desecration would reflect a lasting disgrace upon our nation; I trust that this may meet the eye, not alone of some of the descendants of the possessor, but of the leading men of our community in the metropolis. I am, Yours respectfully, A.A. Levy, 29, Red Lion Square, Spitalfields." [Mar 2013]
- Quakers Lane Jews' Burial Ground, St Crispin's Road (corner Talbot Square), off Quakers Lane Norwich NR3
Also known as Gildencroft Jewish Cemetery, acquired in 1813 and in use until 1854. No records have survived and none of the surviving headstones are legible. [David Shulman, Webmster JCR-UK August 2016]
The Hebrew Congregation Cemetery adjoining Talbot Square is the earliest surviving Jewish cemetery in Norwich at northern city center. Located in the Church of England parish of St Martin at Oak, the construction of the Inner Ring Road in the late 1960s effectively cut off the Jewish cemetery from St Martin's so it fits within the St Augustine's area. In 1813, Norwich's small Hebrew Congregation leased a small plot of land in the Gildencroft for a cemetery, the second known Jewish cemetery in the city, succeeding a now lost burial ground in Mariner's Lane, a hillside road off Ber Street to the south of the city center. [see above] The Gildencroft plot was acquired in the names of four local Jews: Barnett Crawcour (a Norwich dentist), Henry Carr (a Norwich merchant), Israel Jacobs (a Norwich optician), and Colman Michael (a merchant from the market town of Wymondham in Norfolk). Then, no road or track to the plot was wide enough for a cart or hearse, so coffins had to be carried on the shoulders of pall-bearers down a narrow path from St Martin's Lane. Later this path, known as Quaker Lane because it leads to the Quaker Meeting House and Burial Ground in the Gildencroft, was widened to allow wheeled biers access to the grave side. Probably, about thirty interments in this cemetery were made during the forty-year period of its use. Interments in the Gildencroft plot ceased in 1854 when a new Burial Act forbad burials in churchyards and cemeteries within the City walls. [St Augustine's Resident Association - Cemetery History: Mar 2013]
See also Cemetery Scribes - Quakers Lane Cemetery [January 2017]
ACCESS: Locked, admittance by arrangement with Norwich Hebrew Congregation.
- Norwich City Cemetery, Jewish Section, Bowthorpe Road, Norwich NR2
The cemetery, situated to the left (northeast) of the crematorium from Earlham Road, dates from 1856 and is still in use by the small Norwich Hebrew Congregation. Entry is through a hedge from the main cemetery. [David Shulman, Webmster JCR-UK August 2016]
A new Jewish cemetery was opened in the City Cemetery off Bowthorpe Road in 1856. ....... a local man employed by the Hebrew Congregation was gardener and caretaker until the 1940s. Now overgrown, it contains the graves of 19th-century Norwich Jewish community's leadiers including Barnett Crawcour, the dentist, who died aged 50 in 5595 (1835 CE), Simon Aaron, a jeweller of Elm Hill, and Lyon Mordecai, also known as Judah Lieb Ben Mordecai, a licensed kosher butcher, who died aged 60 in 5604 (1844 CE)'.[St Augustine's Resident Association - Cemetery History: Mar 2013]
Remains of seventeen bodies discovered at bottom of well in Norwich in 2004 given a Jewish burial; evidence points to violent deaths. BBC 2011 article. [Mar 2013]
See also Cemetery Scribes - Bowthorpe Road Cemetery [January 2017]
ACCESS: General cemetery hours