Hidden behind a recently renewed red brick wall, fronted by a small section of grassed parkland along Bury New Road, in the heart of Prestwich, is the 2nd oldest Jewish Cemetery in Manchester (after the previous burial ground in Pendleton) belongiong to the 2nd largest Jewish community in Britain. The site was chosen as it was close to Manchester and had no adjoining budilings. It is still close to Manchester (in fact, technically its now in Greater Manchester) however the site is now adjoined on two sides.
The land was bought from George Gardner (Jr.) amongst other local land owners. Mr Gardner was a major land owner in Prestwich - his name lives on locally in Gardner Rd, and Buttersile Lane was originally called Gardner Lane as it provided a short cut across his land, for a fee payable at the Toll gate on Hilton Lane.
As the Jewish population grew, with immigration from Poland, Spain, Holland, Germany & Portugal, and with some being rich merchants such as Ralph Straus who lived at The Holme, the cemetery land was purchased by the Old Hebrew Congregation and the cemetery opened in 1841, along with a mortuary building with accomodation on a second floor. This replaced the existing 1794 burial ground in Pendleton (which was 12 by 15 yards and contains just 29 burials).
Some of the earliest Jewish residents of Prestwich were Henry Simon Lazarus (b: abt. 1791) and his wife Mary (b: abt. 1786). They first appear in Cleggs Cottages in the census of 1841, at which time Henry's occupation was recorded as a tailor. Cleggs cottages housed workers from Clegg's Warehouse/Albion Mill which stood to the North of the cemetery and was later expanded.
Mr Lazarus was later recorded as Sexton of the Jewish cemetery living above the mortuary. Mary died in 1863, and 5 years later Lazarus died climbing some steps at Fenchurch train station in London. It was found that he had suffered from exhaustion during a 24 hour period of fasting (he was quite orthodox), he died aged 85. His grandson Horatio Lazarus Barnett, of Manilla, was awarded the Imperial Order of Charles III by Spain in 1870 for his high integrity and honourable career as a merchant.
Nobody was present in the census of 1871, and in 1881, the burial ground was looked after by Isiah and Fanny Black, both originally born in Poland.
The original mortuaryhouse was demolished in 1887, as it was deemed unsuitable for a residence, and a house of prayer constructed instead along with a mortuary. To the South of the cemetery Sharp Street houses were built on the field and to the North, Albion Mill had expanded. Watch a video showing how the centre of Prestwich and the area aorund the graveyard was developed....
Between 1841 and 1887, many noted and wealthy members of early Hebrew community were interred at Prestwich. The most prominent of which had a section of the graveyard fenced off, and dedicated to the Behrens family.
Solomon Behrens,related to Sir Jacob Behrens, was born in 1787 in Hamburg, and became one of the wealthiest industrialists in Victorian Britain with a wealth of around £700,000 (£94m today). He supplied funding to help start up Owens College, a university focussing on science. Owens College would later grow to become Englands first civic University, the University of Manchester. His Wife was Anna Lucas, the sister of Phillip Lucas who, along with his business partner and nephew Henry Micholls, is considered the first Jew to arrive in Manchester. [Ref The Forgotten Ancestry of the Oldest Jewish Cemetery in Greater Manchester
In 1851, Solomon Behrens Esq. donated a pair of gates at the entrance to the cemetery in memory of his wife. The gates still remain, bricked up behind the present wall. Mr Behrens ran SL Behrens & Co Merchants. His son, Edward made further wealth through the East India Company, and became Govenor of Victoria University (now the University of Manchester) as well as President of the Jew's School and generous contributor to that, and several charities and philanthropic institutions.
In the presence of many local gentlemen and Jewish Community noteables, Edward was placed in the Behrens plot at Prestwich Cemetery, after his death at Hyde Park Hotel London, in 1879.
Already in the plot was his wife Abigail who was a pioneer of women’s education and founding member of Manchester High School for Girls.
The family donated their residence,Oak Hall in Fallowfield, to the UoM, but Abigail is said to have never moved out.
His son Walter became highly successful himself, becoming President of the British Chamber of Commerce in Paris, and a second son Clive achieved the rank of Major, was a member of the Royal British Legion, and was son in law to Lord Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild who was a prominent member of the notorious dynasty and the first Jewish man to be admitted to the House of Lords. When Frank Behrens died in 1902, the funeral at Prestwich was attended by the His Serene Higness Prince Adolphus, Duke of Teck (a great-grandson of King George III and younger brother of Mary, who married the Duke of York - later to become King George V & Queen Mary.
[also in attendance were Baron Schroeder (Banker), General Williams (CB DSO) and Colonel Cotton-Jodrell (KCB, DL, JP & MP !)]
In 1880, Isaac Abraham Franklin, a surgeon and founder of the Jews' School in Cheetham was buried in the graveyard.
His father was Abraham Franklin (born Portsmouth 1813), son of Benjamin Wolf Franklin, not America's founding father, but a religious teacher. Originally named Fraenkel, the family had arrived in England from Breslau (Wrocław, Poland) around 1763. After spells in Portsmouth and Liverpool, Abraham ran a jewellers shop in St Ann's Place, Manchester, and became leader of the Halliwell Street Synagogue, Cheetham.
To further the prestige and respectability of the community, Isaac sought larger accommodation, sermons in English and the formation of a choir and educational and philanthropic agencies, as well as also striving for the care of the poor too. Abraham Franklin and Alexander Jacob formed the Manchester Hebrew Philanthropic Society in 1826. [Ref: History of the Jews in manchester]. In the 1841 census, the Franklin family lived on Bury New Rd opposite the present day Casino, and Abraham (55) was listed as a "Bricker", there were several brick factories in that locality, and Isaac (24) was listed as a surgeon.
The Manchester Hebrew Association had founded religious classes in 1838. By 1842 they first established a school at Hanover Street, then York Street, and then Halliwell Street (1851). In 1869 the school moved to a larger purpose built building in Derby Street, Cheetham, and became known as the Manchester Jews' School.
By 1851, Isaac was living at 23 Long Millgate, and by 1861 he was just down the road from what had been his father's house, on Great Ducie Street opposite the Assizes Courts (Strangeways Prison today). Isaac was listed as a Lecturer at the Manchester Royal which stood in Piccadilly, and by 1871 he was a surgeon once more. He called his home Gesunde House (Healthy House).
The Jews' school building on Derby Street (1868) was built by the leading Manchester architect, Edward Salomons who also designed the tomb of James Lamb which is found in St Mary's Churchyard not far from the Jewish Graveyard. St Mary's churchyard also contains the grave of Charles Swain, The Manchester Poet whose mother was Jewish.
On the 29th December 1880, the boy scholars were assembled in the school hall in two lines as Isaac's body was removed from one of the rooms where it had lay in rest in an oak coffin since his death there on the previous Sunday. A gathering of several hundred people stood outside as the coffin was conveyed by members of the school committee to the hearse, which carried it on to Prestwich. Afterwards, back at the school, talks were given detailing Isaac's achievements for the youth and poor of the community.
As of 1905, Rev. Nicholls recorded that several graves were were without headstones, only marked with numbered wooden crosses.
The graveyard contains between 300-500 burials, with additions rare after 1884, the last burial is stated to have been in 1914, and it was finally closed to the public in 1951, when the garden of rest to its front was created for the Festial of Britain.
[A newspaper article dated 1956 actually records the burial of Mrs David Falk, who's husband had been the warden of the Great Synagogue, and on the Manchester Board of Guardians.]
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