Who am I and what is this?

I am a Jew with connections to the UK (born) and Israel (home). In early 2018, I booked flights to the UK for October to see live music, family, and friends.

I originally planned to visit London. As the trip drew closer, I was notified that my company would close for the week before my trip due to the Sukkot (Tabernacles) holiday. I took advantage and moved my outbound flight to a week earlier.

In a classic first world problems scenario, what to do with this extra time abroad? As someone who'd like to see more of the planet, I decided to visit a part of the UK that I'd never been to before. namely Cornwall, a large county in the South West of England, boasting the best weather in the country, and specifically Falmouth, a town on the south coast, known for history, sailing, art and culture.

Story

After some days enjoying the delights of Falmouth, I noticed a Hebrew signature in the corner of a photograph ¹ whilst browsing in the window of Cornwall Art Galleries. This was unexpected to say the least. (If I knew then what I know now, I'd have taken a better photo.)

It's fascinating how Israelis get around, for a country with a population of eight million people. I can barely spend time in London without hearing Hebrew on the street, even once in the queue at Primark Watford...

But in sleepy Falmouth? I had to find out more. I went into the gallery and spoke to the lady behind the counter, explaining what had caught my eye. She told me that אסף פרנק (Assaf Frank) is indeed an Israeli artist, and:

"You're a tourist? Did you know that there is an old Jewish cemetery on the edge of town, by the Sainsbury's?"

Of course I didn't, and my curiosity was piqued. I'm not a history buff, all I know about the history of UK Jewry is that for much of the last thousand years we variously hid our light under a bushel ², and were persecuted and expelled, until the 1800s emancipation when life started to look up. Conversely, from the early part of the 20th century, life started to look down for European Jews, many of whom (e.g. my great-grandparents) made their way to the UK in search of not a better life, rather any life.

And yet, Falmouth? Today's UK Jews are almost entirely city-based, foregoing the beauty and wonder of the UK countryside for some kind of safety in numbers. We congregate in a handful of London suburbs, and even smaller areas of Manchester, Leeds, and other places that it doesn't seem rational to live in.

As you can tell from the above, I'm of Ashkenazi origin, which makes it somewhere between normal and expected to ruin a delightful holiday with a visit to a disused cemetery that time forgot.

I opened Google Maps and started walking.

Cemetery

Around 2.5km and half an hour later, I found the Sainsbury's supermarket and a small industrial estate next door. I came across an overgrown area with a locked gate and graves behind it. Yay!

Upon closer inspection, there was a sign on the gate saying that the Dissenters Burying Ground was closed, essentially due to vandalism and probably-futile attempts to restore and maintain the area. It can't be easy to raise money for restoration of cemeteries of religious separatist groups...

Not knowing anything about Dissenters except that they weren't Jews, I turned around and asked in the industrial estate. No clues. But I couldn't give up. There was a small area between the Dissenters cemetery and a new housing development on the other side, but I couldn't get in to see if that was the holy grail I'd been looking for.

I walked back out onto Falmouth Road to try and get in another way. I found a blocked entrance which backed onto the same area, but fences are made to climb. I was in.

Google Streetmaps link for the interested (click on "View on Google Maps" to see the exact location):

Entrance

Having essentially broken into a cemetery, going up the stairs was easy. They were in historical or bad shape, depending on whether your glass is half-full or half-empty.

I found myself in the other side of the Dissenters Cemetery, and over to my right, past a crumbling wall, more graves. This was looking "good".

Corner and side views

Cemeteries are strange beasts, a relic of a time when most people were convinced that there had to be some greater force at work. And yet, why not honour our loved ones? It would take a brave person to suggest that we start treating mortal human remains in the same way that we treat any others. Which is when it hit me...

My excitement at connecting with this historical byline was tempered by a dark, sombre mood as the heartbreaking neglect, vandalism, and disrepair, came into focus. Cemeteries in London and Israel are generally in good shape and implicitly reflect the fallacy that we live forever. But this was real, showing how nature will win in the end.

Closer views

Unlike modern UK Jewish headstones, many of these were exclusively written in Hebrew, although newer ones were bilingual.

Individual graves

Everything is so eroded, it's hard to make much out. Barry Hyman and David Liss contributed better photos (did they clean the headstones?) to the corresponding page on Cemetery Scribes ³, which also mentions Keith Pearce's book The Lost Jews of Cornwall which even includes information on who are buried there.

Dissenters

The Dissenters cemetery is in just as much disrepair, plus trees which have grown in amongst the graves in the 80 years since being abandoned. The Wikipedia entry on the cemetery has good, if sobering information on the entire site.

Synagogue

As one does, I'd been searching the web whilst I was in the cemetery. Reading about the Falmouth Jewish community, I noticed that there had been a synagogue in Falmouth. I wasn't going to leave the area without completing the jigsaw.

I headed for Gyllyng Street, close to where I'd been staying. I started at the west end, and there was no sign of the distinctive, isolated red building. Having asked locals who didn't know, I arrived at the eastern end of the street ⁴ and... nothing. Disheartened, I carried on walking to the nearby (excellent) Jacob's Ladder Inn for a refreshing beverage.

A few metres later I reached Vernon Place, the continuation of Gyllyng Street. Lo and behold, there she was.

Google Streetmaps does the job again:

If the windows hadn't given it away, the sign did the job.

Now called Summerhill Studios. Falmouth is full of arty types, and with these windows, it wouldn't surprise me if this was a place of creativity. I knocked, but there was nobody home.

Beautiful, yet stark. They don't make them like this anymore.

Conclusion

Looking at this panorama, the wonderful Airbnb where I'd been staying, with its harbour views, is the grey house at the far left. The former synagogue is the red building on the far right.

According to the Wikipedia entry on the synagogue:

Its commanding location, with a fine view of Falmouth harbour, is said to have been so that Jewish merchants could observe their ships entering and leaving the harbour.

After all that, it had been right under my nose, we shared the same view. I can hear my superstitious Ashkenazi forebears saying this whole unplanned saga was beshert, Yiddish for destined. For me, it's simply a reflection of the wandering nature of the somehow-enduring Jewish people, and a reminder to make the most of now.

It turned out to be a great idea to visit this lovely part of the world, with its innocent, unspoilt feel, great people, history, food, drink, and nightlife. Yet I came across an unexpected poignant surprise which left a lump in my throat. There isn't much information on the Internet about it, and most of what there is, is hard to read and / or hidden on obscure historical websites. That's why I created this site as part history, part memorial.

Other references

I have included reference links within the text above, but here are some others on the subject:

• Historic England, a detailed if dry read on the subject.
• JCR-UK on the history of the Falmouth Jewish community.
• Relevant page on the International Jewish Cemetery Project
• Cornwall Archaeological Society event exploring the cemetery and explaining about the restoration plans
• Cornwall's Jewish Journey, an audio feature by Falmouth student Gideon Goldberg.