For Community Information, see Wolverhampton on JCR-UK.

Associated with the Wolverhampton Synagogue was a Jews’ Burial Ground in the Blakenhall area of Wolverhampton.  The land for this was provided by the Duke of Sutherland in 1851, this fact is recorded on two dedication plaques and the site is shown on an 1842 map as ‘Slang at Blakemore’ i.e. a long and thin strip of land NB the Slang extended further back than the current Burial Ground.  The Burial Ground has high walls and an Ohel; these were added in 1884 and the entire site, with circa 140 headstones and also possibly a number of unmarked burials, is now statutorily grade II listed but not generally open to visitors.  The first recorded burial at the site is that of Benjamin Cohen who died on 25^th June 1851 in his eighth year (his headstone is partly eroded) and it is said that his death was the reason why the site was originally provided by the Duke.  Benjamin Cohen’s Death Certificate records that he was the son of Jacob Cohen, a Pawn Broker of Bilston Street, and that he died of dropsy hydrothorax with his death reported a week later by (Rabbi) Isaac Barnett who was also present at the death.

The Ohel has both a prayer hall, with four fine marble prayer plaques donated by the Hart family in 1906 and manufactured by local monumental mason’s Hopcraft, as well as Bet Tahara side room with the remnants of a pump and a coal fired water heater.  The Ohel currently requires restoration.  By the mid twentieth century the Burial Ground was almost full and the Ohel was beginning to deteriorate plus access to the secluded site was never easy for visitors. [Martin Rispin and All Saints and Blakenhall New Deal for Communities Heritage Project, November 2010]

Merridate Cemetery, Jeffcock Road : Jewish section

In 1965 Dr. Leslie Seaton, a well respected Wolverhampton physician, died and left provision for a new Jewish Section at Merridate Cemetery in Jeffcock Road complete with a modern Ohel. Dr. Seaton was the first burial on this site.  The ‘new’ burial ground currently contains 60 burials, and has spaces for many more, although the 1960s Ohel was demolished in the 1980s as it had developed major structural problems and was never replaced, hence the large open space at the centre of the Jewish Section.  [Martin Rispin and All Saints and Blakenhall New Deal for Communities Heritage Project, November 2010]