Last week saw a very successful clean-up day in the Deane Road Jewish Cemetery.
I went
to the
latest
planning
meeting
tonight
and Saul
Marks of
the Old
Congregation
Project
told us
about
all the
different
volunteers
that
turned
up, the
hard
work of
the
Probation
Service
volunteers
and the
efforts
of the
Kensington
Clean
Team.
One
particularly
interesting
visitor
during
the
clean-up
was a
man who
as a
child
used to
live on
Chiswell
Street
and
overlooked
the
cemetery
from his
bedroom
window.
He and
his pals
used to
climb
over the
wall to
play
amongst
the
tombstones
and he
said he
still
has
vivid
dreams
about
the
place.
A good
third of
the
cemetery
has once
again
been
cleared
of weeds
and
overgrowth,
Tony,
one of
the
Probation
Office
volunteers
did a
good job
clearing
the
southern
path
nearly
all the
way down
and
everyone
worked
really
hard
clearing
round a
particular
grave
that was
due to
be
visited
by
relatives
over the
weekend.
I have
done
some
genealogy
work in
conjunction
with
Saul and
with
Maria
Grimes
and we
have
identified
some
descendants
who we
are now
going to
approach
to see
if they
can help
with our
fundraising
efforts
to find
the
£200k we
need to
fully
restore
the
cemetery.
The next
project
is to
tidy up
the
front,
outside
area, so
that
residents
walking
past can
see a
renewed
drive
and
flower
beds. We
have
already
got the
funding
for this
and
agreed
tonight
to get
on with
this
straight
away, so
if you
want to
help
please
get in
touch.
I am
going to
put a
few
photographs
up for
you to
see the
work and
the
workers
(and the
Sid
Vicious
graffiti
I
mentioned
in an
earlier
post).
These
are of
the
areas
that
have
been
cleared
up to a
point,
the rest
is still
head-high
in
weeds.
Comments
would be
appreciated
