History

PLANS

	Christian and Jewish volunteers working to re-erect a fallen gravestone during the first working party, 8 June 2006

The restoration of Deane Road Cemetery can be divided into several stages:

STAGE 1

Firstly, there is the problem of clearing the immense volume of foliage in the cemetery, including the extermination of all the Japanese knotweed on the site. Japanese knotweed is a highly poisonous plant and, by law, must be destroyed on site, to reduce the risk of spreading. Most of the ground, particularly in the central area of the cemetery, is covered in ivy, brambles and self-seeded plants, all of which must be removed, and which will reveal a number of hidden graves and fallen headstones.

STAGE 2

The second stage of the project will be to maintain the cemetery in a reasonable condition on a long-term basis which, as explained in the History section of this website, has been the main stumbling block in previous restoration attempts. Thanks to the involvement of the Merseyside Probation Service and retired teacher and horticulturist Muriel Sumner, these first two stages are looking well covered at the present time.

		Probation Service workers dragging huge tracts of severed ivy away from the boundary wall, 20 September 2006

One important problem is that we need a regular supply of skips, particularly in the next few months, in order to remove the remaining fly-tipped rubbish and the large amount of vegetation that will be cleared from the site. This is a problem that requires relatively urgent funding, so please contact us if you can help with this, or know someone who can!

STAGE 3

The third stage will be to make the extensive repairs required to the boundary wall, entrance archway, path, front gates and railings. This will require some considerable funding, as outlined in the recent structural report on the cemetery. This is explained in more detail in the Funding section, but it can be summarised that nearly £200,000 will be required to complete this stage of the restoration.

It is also important that as many of the fallen headstones as possible are re-erected  and some of the graves in the poorest condition refurbished. A recent very favourable quote for the re-erection of all the tombstones which are in one piece but simply fallen over was £8,500. For such a relatively small amount, hundreds of stones could be returned to an upright position and the cemetery would look vastly improved in a very short time.

As the re-erection and refurbishment stage will be another of great expense, we are hoping that as many descendants as possible of those buried at Deane Road will contribute to the refurbishment of their ancestors' graves. A number of descendants have been traced already and some have pledged donations to the project in general, while others have contributed towards the refurbishment of their ancestors' graves. I have details of all those buried here and can find most graves with little difficulty, thanks to the burial register. I am happy to provide photos of your ancestors' graves and information from the records, so please contact me if you think your ancestors could be buried here. If they were Jewish and died in Liverpool between 1837 and 1904, they probably were!

STAGE 4

Once the first three stages have been completed, the tourism potential of the cemetery can be exploited. It is hoped that there will be a large re-consecration service held at the cemetery, with both religious and secular speakers, and that this will be publicised in a way that attracts both Jewish and non-Jewish attendees. After that, it is hoped that the cemetery will be added to the Liverpool Heritage Trail and guided tours will be given to pre-booked groups of all faiths from as wide a region as possible.

Tours will give visitors information on the history and architecture of the cemetery and its place in the history of the Liverpool Jewish community, the format of a Jewish funeral and mourning rites, a guided tour of the cemetery with biographical information about the most prominent people buried there, along with a chance to donate to the upkeep of the site and also the Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation.