Letter to The Brynmawr & District Jewish Burial Board regarding ground tests at the Brynmawr Jewish Cemetery, January 1981

Description

Letter to the the Brynmawr & District Jewish Burial Board from O. Haydn Richards, Gwent Town Clerk. The letter opens in reference to a previous letter sent 2 October 1979. Richards writes that the council are in urgent need for additional land to extend the Brynmawr Cemetery. He wishes to discuss purchasing part of the land owned by The Brynmawr & District Jewish Burial Board, in consideration of the Council undertaking the maintenance of the Jewish Cemetery. In order to fully explore this matter, Richards asks that the Engineering and Planning Department of the council may put down some trial holes to check the quality of the land and soil.

Brynmawr Hebrew Congregation was founded in 1889 and the opening of the Brynmawr Synagogue took place in June 1901. The trustees were Barnett Isaacs, pawnbroker; Isaac Isaacs, pawnbroker; Isaac Brest, house furnisher; and Isaac Goldfoot, draper. In 1920, they opened in the Brynmawr Jewish Cemetery. Abel Myers of Abersychan paid for the land purchased from the Brynmawr Urban District Council and conveyed by a document of 23 October 1919 to five men: Abel Myers, pawnbroker, of Abersychan; Jacob Morris, jeweller, of Brynmawr; Isaac Brest, furniture dealer, of Brynmawr; Joel Ballin, draper, of Brynmawr; and Jacob Myers, clothier, of Nantyglo. The land measured 2 acres, 3 roods, and 3 perches, and the cost was £206.

Sources:
'The Jewish Community of Brynmawr, Wales' - Jewish Journal of Sociology: jewishjournalofsociology.org/index.php/jjs/article/download/15/16;
'Brynmawr Hebrew Congregation': https://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/Community/val1_brynmawr/index.htm

Depository: Gwent Archives.