Ohel And Walls To Jews Burial Ground

An Ohel and walls enclosing a Jewish burial ground, built in 1884 on land given by the Duke of Sutherland to the Hebrew Community of Wolverhampton in 1851.

The ohel (prayer hall) is constructed of red English-bond brick with stone, rubbed brick and terracotta dressings, and has a plain tiled roof. The surrounding graveyard walls are of garden-wall-bond brick with ashlar and blue shaped brick dressings. The forecourt walls, of slightly different bond, appear to be later in date. The narrow rectangular site runs east-west, with the ohel positioned east of centre and its southern spur wall creating a division between the Cohanim forecourt to the east and the graveyard to the west.

The ohel has identical gable ends to east and west, each with double doors at the centre set under a cambered arch of rubbed bricks. Above the doors is an oeil-de-beuf window with rubbed brick surround. Projecting brick kneelers at either side support a projecting band at the gable top. On the east face, to the left of the doors, is a terracotta tablet set within an aedicular surround of shaped bricks and small terracotta pediment, showing a pomegranate in a vase. The tablet records the gift of the burial ground by the Duke of Sutherland in 1851 and the erection of new walls and buildings in 1884.

The attached bet tahara (mortuary) projects to the north with blocked openings on both east and west flanks. The south side of the ohel has two blocked windows with stone lintels. The graveyard and forecourt walls stand 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 graveyard walls are bonded into the ohel walls and date to 1884; the forecourt walls, of different bond and fewer headers, appear slightly later and are not bonded into adjacent brickwork. Gravestones date from the 1860s to the late 20th century. A datestone on the north side of the southern graveyard wall, reset in position, also records the Duke of Sutherland's gift of 1851.

The interior has terracotta tiles to floors and lower walls. The boarded roof features exposed chamfered wall plates and purlins, with a central truss supported on shaped stone corbels; the arched braces have ovolo mouldings to their corners. Either side of the east and west doorways are large marble prayer tablets with inset lead lettering bearing Hebrew texts from the burial service for the dead. The tablets, read in sequence, comprise the prayer 'HaTsur Tamim' (The Rock his work is perfect), Psalm 16, Psalm 90 and 91 (with the text 'V'Yahi Noam'), and the Kaddish memorial prayer in the form used by sons after graveside burial. A chronogram on one tablet contains the Hebrew date 5666 (1906). 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 in May 1906; the left-hand bracket bears the stonemason's mark 'HOPCRAFT'.

The northern wall of the ohel contains a fireplace with painted stone surround and flanking tiles. The attached bet tahara has a sink and taps on its north wall and a metal cauldron on the south wall (behind the ohel fireplace), and contains a timber partition wall dividing the space.

The burial ground remains largely intact with no significant losses. This building type is increasingly rare nationally. The architectural restraint of the ohel reflects the requirement for an undemonstrative building, but the detailing is well judged and executed.