Cornwall’s Jews celebrate restoration of cemetery dating back to 1740s

Cornwall’s Jews were celebrating this week with the completion of restoration work at the Grade II listed Penzance Cemetery, which dates back to the 1740s.

Leaders of the thriving Cornish community said it was a milestone moment, after a £13,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund helped them rebuild high stone granite walls and revive an important site in the country’s most western town. 

Leslie Lipert, treasurer of Friends of Penzance Cemetery, said: “The restoration has revived Jewish and Cornish history and strengthened links between the new Jewish community and the wider Cornish population. It connects both with a shared past.”

The Lottery fund matched contributions made by visitors to the cemetery and donations from descendants of those interred in the cemetery, as well as from local and Jewish grant-making organisations and local traders.

English Heritage had earlier recognised the site in a lane once known as Jerusalem Row as “the finest walled Georgian Jewish cemetery outside London”.

Viti the Friends of the Penzance Jewish Cemetery: https://www.penzancejewishcemetery.org.uk