Reasons for Designation
The Jewish burial ground walls and ohel at Cocksmith's Lane, Wolverhampton are designated for the following principal reasons:
* The burial ground walls and ohel form a largely intact group with no significant losses.
* The building type is increasingly rare in the national context.
* The prayer tablets inside the ohel are of fine quality and give an unusually complete wording for the service for the dead, including responses from the congregation.
* The architectural reticence of the ohel is explained by the need for an undemonstrative building, but the detailing is well judged and executed.
Details
895-1/0/10069 COCKSHUTTS LANE
27-AUG-08 Ohel and walls to Jews Burial Ground
II
An Ohel, with attached Bet Tahara and walls enclosing a graveyard and forecourt area for the Cohanim. Built in 1884 on land given by the Duke of Sutherland to the Hebrew Community of Wolverhampton in 1851.
MATERIALS & PLAN: The ohel (prayer hall) is of red, English-bond brick with stone, rubbed brick and terracotta dressings and a plain tiled roof. The walls to the graveyard are of garden-wall-bond with a slightly different bond to the forecourt walls, which appear to be slightly later. The walls have dressings of ashlar and blue, shaped bricks. The narrow site is rectangular and runs east-west with the ohel placed to east of centre and forming, with its southern spur wall, a division between the forecourt for the Cohanim to the east and the graveyard to the west.
EXTERIOR: The ohel has similar gable ends to the east and west; there are double doors to the centre with a cambered arch of rubbed bricks. Immediately above this is an oeil-de-beuf window, with a surround of rubbed bricks. At either side are projecting brick kneelers which support a projecting band to the top of the gable. To left of the doors on the east face is a terracotta tablet with an aedicular surround of shaped bricks and a small terracotta pediment, showing a pomegranate in a vase. The tablet reads:'THIS BURIAL GROUND / WAS PRESENTED TO THE / WOLVERHAMPTON / HEBREW CONGREGATION / BY HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF / SUTHERLAND / IN THE YEAR 1851 / NEW WALLS AND BUILDINGS / ERECTED IN THE YEAR 1884'. To the north is the attached bet tahara (mortuary) which has blocked openings to both east and west flanks. The south side of the ohel has two blocked windows, each with a stone lintel. The walls to the graveyard and the forecourt are between eight and ten feet in height, with regularly-spaced pilaster buttresses. They have blue capping bricks with arched heads set between regularly-spaced ashlar capping blocks. The walls to the graveyard are bonded into the ohel walls and were clearly built at the same date. The walls to the forecourt are of a different bond with fewer headers and appear to be slightly later in date and are not bonded into the brickwork of the ohel or graveyard walls. The gravestones date from the 1860s to the latest years of the C20. To the north side of the southern graveyard wall is a datestone, which has been reset and also records the gift of the land in 1851 from the Duke of Sutherland to the Hebrew Community of Wolverhampton.
INTERIOR: There are terracotta tiles to the floors and lower walls. The roof is boarded, but has exposed chamfered wall plates and purlins. There is a central truss, supported on shaped stone corbels, which has ovolo mouldings to the corners of its arched braces. At either side of the east and west doorways are large, marble prayer tablets with inset lead lettering which bear the prayers of the service for the dead in Hebrew, The texts are all from that part of the burial service said inside the ohel, complete with responses. The tablets are read in the following order; Looking west, to the left of the door - 'HaTsur Tamim' ('The Rock his work is perfect...). Then, to right of the door - Psalm 16 'Guard me God...'. The text ends with a chronogram containing the Hebrew date 5666 = 1906. This is followed by the two tablets at either side of the door looking east; first that to the right - 'V'Yahi Noam' (And let the pleasantness..'), which is the end of Psalm 90 followed by Psalm 91. Finally, that to left, the Kaddish, memorial prayer which is here given in the special form said by the sons in the Ohel after returning from the graveside burial. A fifth, dedicatory tablet records that: THE FOUR MARBLE TABLETS WERE ERECTED BY / JONAS HART / IN LOVING MEMORY OF HIS PARENTS / EMMANUEL AND SHEBA HART / SIVAN 5666 MAY 1906'. The left hand bracket, which supports this tablet has the stonemason's mark `HOPCRAFT'. There is a fireplace to the northern wall, with painted stone surround and tiles to the flanks. The bet tahara, to the north has a sink and taps on the north wall, and to the south wall (directly behind the fireplace in the ohel) is a metal cauldron. There is also a timber partition wall which divides the space.
SOURCE: Sharman Kadish,Jewish Heritage in England, 2006, 125.
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION DECISION:
The Jewish burial ground walls and ohel at Cocksmith's Lane, Wolverhampton is designated for the following principal reasons:
* The burial ground walls and ohel form a largely intact group with no significant losses.
* The building type is increasingly rare in the national context.
* The prayer tablets inside the ohel are of fine quality and give the complete wording for the service for the dead.
* The architectural reticence of the ohel is explained by the need for an undemonstrative building, but the detailing is well judged and executed.
