Saint Martin Jewish Cemetery

Saint Martin Jewish Cemetery

Jewish burial King's Lynn

The rear of the small burial ground in King's Lynn

Jewish Burials in King's Lynn

Interviews about the graveyard



"Health of towns":
an examination of the report
and evidence of the Select Committee:
ofcMr. Mackinnon's Bill: 
.... for establishing
cemeteries around the metropolis.
(p:22 1843)



Mr. Moses Solomons, who resided in Vinegar-yard, Drury Lane, said, his " back staircase windows looked into the churchyard."

This son of Abraham, who seemed to be a somewhat malicious witness with respect to the gentlemen of the spade and pickaxe, gave evidence, on the main point, of the most decisive and remarkable character.

He has resided during fifty-seven years on the margin of one of the most crowded and worst managed grounds in the metropolis, and the result of this extraordinary experiment is as follows :

" Does any exhalation or putrid smell arise from it ? -Sometimes, in summer time. "

Is that very great. - "Yes, very great. "

Have you ever found it affect your health ? - "No".

Nor the health of your family ? - "No."

This testimony of Moses quite confounded the Chairman, who,  returned to the point by a general interrogatory, and obtained from the aged Jew an answer which only made matters worse :-

" Is that a healthy neighbourhood ? - Where I live (on the margin of one of the worst graveyards) is very healthy."

Costessey Mills

"A singular story of a supposed murder was published.  A human skeleton was recovered from the bed of the river at Costessey Mills by a “didling” boat owned by Messrs. Culley.  The circumstance was recalled that a Jew pedlar, known as “Old Abraham,” had mysteriously disappeared eight years previously.  It was also remembered that one Robert Page, sentenced to transportation for life for sheep stealing at Drayton, on March 27th, 1834, had told the prison warders that if he were taken to Costessey he could show them, beneath a willow tree, “something that would make their hair stand on end.”  By a curious coincidence, the skeleton was found beneath a willow which overhung the river.  It was stated that the body had been staked down in the bed of the stream."

Title: Norfolk Annals  A Chronological Record of Remarkable Events in the Nineteeth Century, Vol. 1     Author: Charles Mackie

King's Lynn - Millfleet (Jewish)



Camera pressed to the railings

© Godric Godricson



King's Lynn is an ancient town in the western part of Norfolk and is usually much neglected by visitors to the county and by the authorities when they produce long-term plans.  The town is full of interesting architecture and ancient monuments although the tourist authorities tend to by-pass King's Lynn in favour of Norwich which is the 'County town' or regional capital.

The ancient town has a wide range ecclesiastical architecture ranging from the ruins of the insignificant to the ruins of the  magnificent and much visited.  Somewhere, in this wide-ranging continuum  you'll find a number of places to visit all of which have a history of burials.  Unlike European cities which often have no observable cemeteries in the town centre, King's Lynn has has a medieval past where burial sites are placed 'Cheek by jowl'  with the living.  Whilst this did create important environmental health issues it also produces diverse contemporary town planning.



From the street

© Godric Godricson



When I visited Kings Lynn it mid July 2011 it was extremely wet and unseasonably windy.  The trees were blown here and there and the rain was torrential, to say the least.  Despite this the archaeological and historical sites are provocative.

Here we find the Millfleet Jewish cemetery on the edge of the public housing scheme. This is a burial site used by "Dutch Jews" until 1849 although I suspect this term "Dutch"  is really a term for 'Ashkenazi'. People pass by this small cemetery and don't seem to notice this interesting place on their doorstep. A place that that says something about migration and diversity.