- Cemetery
The Jews’ burial ground is outside the city walls opposite the Wynards Almshouses, in Magdalen Road in the Southernhay and Friars Conservation Area. Two other nonconformist burial grounds lie within close proximity, these are the Dissenters burial ground and the Quaker burial ground. The burial ground lies within the Exeter City Area of Archaeological Importance and is included in the schedule of buildings of local importance. The Jews burial ground is considered to be a heritage asset of high local significance. The first lease was issued to 'Abraham Ezekiel of the parish of St Kerrian in the city of Exon, silversmith'taken out in 1757; the lessors were 'the brothers and sisters of the house or hospital of lepers of Saint Mary Magdalen without the South Gate'. The nascent community was following tradition, acquiring a plot of land in which to bury its dead as a priority before the construction of a synagogue. Abraham Ezekiel was required to build a wall of brick, stone or cob, with coping, eight feet high around the plot. The burial ground was enlarged in 1807 and again in 1851 for 'all that piece or plot of ground situate adjoining Magdalen Street in the parish of Holy Trinity in the said city and county of the city of Exeter enclosed within a wall and now and for many years past used by the congregation of the Jews as their burial ground’. The cemetery received extensive repairs in the 1980s and new gates were fitted, the ohel (chapel) was rebuilt and the walls repaired and rebuilt. The cemetery is well maintained and is still used occasionally for burials.
