The old Jewish Cemetery in Organ’s Passage Gloucester was finally cleared in 1938 when the land was transferred to Gloucester Council for use as a children’s recreation ground, and the remains transferred to the separate section in the new Gloucester Corporation Cemetery at Colney Hill
The first burial in the Organ’s Passage ground took place in 1784 http://www.cemeteryscribes.com/getperson.php?personID=I11616&tree=Cemeteries and the last, some 100 years later in 1886
http://www.cemeteryscribes.com/getperson.php?personID=I11647&tree=Cemeteries
In the early part of this period, Gloucester was still a busy port, but the difficulties of navigating the shallow tidal stretch of the River Severn approaching the city appears to have acted as a deterrent to foreign-going vessels, which possibly explains why the Gloucester Community, which drew its members from quite a wide area and included the long established Levy family of Ross on Wye http://www.cemeteryscribes.com/getperson.php?personID=I11632&tree=Cemeteries
and the Myer family of Hereford, never grew to match those in other ports around the country, such as Portsmouth, Plymouth, and Southampton.
However, although small, the community was surprisingly well documented; see
http://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/susser/provincialjewry/exeteripsw.htm
And, if you can get hold of a copy, Father Brian Torode’s comprehensive study “The Hebrew Community of Cheltenham, Gloucester and Stroud. © 1989 © 1999 Revised. offers a wealth of useful information. As does Marcus Roberts Jtrails http://www.jtrails.org.uk/trails/cheltenham/places-of-interest
Our comprehensive list of burials, drawn from several sources includes a further 5, not listed in Roth’s “Rise of Provincial Jewry”
It is not our normal practice to list burials without accompanying photographs but, since this is a “lost Cemetery” we felt it right to include these records and we hope, where possible, to provide photographs at some future date.
