City of Leeds

(Note: These cemeteries are permanently closed due to dangerous mining subsidence from former coal workings).

Leeds Hill Top Cemeteries contain the burial grounds for a number of Synagogues past and present: Beth Hamidrash Hagodal Synagogue (BHH), the New Briggate Synagogue (also known as the "Grinner") which was the largest Synagogue between the wars, and the New and Old Mariampolar, also called "The Central". The Grinner amalgamated with the Great Synagogue, Belgrave Street, the oldest established synagogue, and some others in 1931 to form the United Hebrew Congregation in Leeds (UHC). Their cemeteries have been in use from 1875 until 1970 (with some later burials, primarily in reserved plots) while Belgrave Street members continue to use their original cemetery on Gelderd Road. The earliest graves in the BHH cemetery date from 1905, some 30 years after that synagogue's foundation.

As the name implies, the Hill Top Cemeteries are situated on top of a hill, but above a labyrinth of mining tunnels and shafts. In 2006, six graves and headstones in the BHH cemetery collapsed thirty feet into what was believed to be a mineshaft and forced Leeds Jewish Orthodox Cemeteries to close the grounds for repairs. These were carried out by the Residual Coal Board Authority who had accepted responsibility for the site and grounds. The cemeteries reopened in June 2007 with assurances about their safety. However, a year later, following further subsidence, all cemeteries on Hill Top were deemed unsafe and are now closed permanently. Since then, every year during the month of Ellul, a memorial service has been held in the Ohel of the current BHH Cemetery in remembrance of those buried in the Hill Top cemeteries. Notable burials in these cemeteries include Rabbi Israel Chaim Daiches, Rabbi Mayer Palterovitch (an ancestor of the actress Gwyneth Paltrow) and the Hebrew & Yiddish scholar Aaron Rumyaneck. Further details on the history of these cemeteries are given in a recent article by Malcolm Sender which was published in the February 2012 Issue of the BHH Magazine BIMA and which can be viewed here.

This "virtual" cemetery has been assembled from digital photographs of approximately 3000 headstones (taken mainly during 1996-2006) together with additional information extracted from the few available extant records, including some old partial plans drawn on linen. For the present purpose, the cemeteries have been spilt into logical sections separated by walls and/or paths. Within each section, the rows have been designated alphabetically and the graves within each row have been numbered sequentially. Where possible, the locations of gaps and unmarked graves have been identified. Within each section the start of each row is identified by A1, B1, C1, etc, as shown in the annotated image (Google Earth) which can be viewed here.

Note: All of the Synagogues which have used the different Sections of Hill Top Cemeteries over the years cannot be identified with any degree of certainty. However, the main Synagogues associated with each Section are known to be:

Cemetery Section(s)	Synagogue(s)
UHT_A, UHT_B	UHC
UHT_C, UHT_D, UHT_F, UHT_G	New Briggate, UHC
UHT_E	Old Mariampolar
UHT_NM	New Mariampolar
BHH_A, BHH_B	BHH

Details of all burials in the Hill Top Cemeteries are provided in this database, together with images of all legible and partially legible headstones. Information for any individual may be displayed by first selecting the appropriate surname letter from the list below and then selecting the required name from its drop-down list.

--Select Cemetery Records-- Surnames A Surnames B Surnames C Surnames D Surnames E Surnames F Surnames G Surnames H Surnames I Surnames J Surnames K Surnames L Surnames M Surnames N Surnames O Surnames P Surnames R Surnames S Surnames T Surnames U Surnames V Surnames W Surnames Y Surnames Z

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