Conveyance deed and schedule to maintain land as the Jewish Burial Ground in Brynmawr, August 1982

Description

This document is a conveyance deed, dated 10 August 1982, consisting of arrangements for the Jewish cemetery in Brynmawr. The deed was agreed between the Borough of Blaenau Gwent (referred to as the council), and Brynmawr and District Jewish Burial Ground. Subjects covered in this document include: the date the conveyance took place, the individuals appointed as trustees, the exact property vested in the trustees for an estate fee, and the orders of the Charity Commissioner. The deed as witnessed is additionally provided, as well as a four-part schedule signed by all the relevant parties. The council states that they will take responsibility to maintain the said land, as well as a prayer hall alongside. On the final page, to contextualise the information shared, a signed to scale copy of the land at Brynmawr Cemetery is included, with colour coding as a reference to specific areas mentioned in the conveyance.

Newport Monmouthshire Hebrew Congregation was founded in 1859 by orthodox Jews meeting at a temporary synagogue in Llanarth Street. A synagogue at Francis Street was opened in 1869 and consecrated by the Chief Rabbi Dr Herman Adler in 1871. In 1934 the congregation moved to the Nathan Harris Memorial Hall in Queen’s Hill which was converted to a synagogue. In 1997 this synagogue was closed, and the congregation moved to the Prayer House by the Jewish Burial Ground on Risca Road. Within 20 years the congregation had dwindled to a few members able to attend and this too had ceased to hold services.

Sources:
“History of our Shul. The First Hundred Years", published by Newport Congregation in 1959;
Oral history interviews with members of the Newport Mon Hebrew Congregation, recorded in 2018 by JHASW.

Depository: Gwent Archives.