These three pieces of masonry have been discovered at Deane Road Jewish Cemetery. We are unsure what they are. They are quite big pieces, at least a foot long, the middle one has mortar down one side, suggesting it was fixed in place. The third one has mortar underneath. They look like some kind of key stones, but were they part of a wall or a floor? The cemetery once had two buildings, a caretakers house and a prayer hall. We presume they were made of brick but there are no photographs of them or drawings and no-one in living memory has ever seen them. Do you know what these masonry pieces would have been used for?
The bottom one bears the inscription Chantrell Patentee Liverpool
Our archivist has done some research into Chantrell and discovered the following information
1. George Frederik Chantrell, 1873, 6 Hatton Garden Liverpool. Patent for new and improved filtering and deodorising medium.
2. 1864 London Gazette notice re. partnership dealing with marble, cement tiles, chimney pieces, terra cotta ware, plaster, lime, grates.
3. 1876 London Gazette noted as Sanitary Engineers.
4. 1884 London Gazette noted as debtor and Building Material Merchants.
The cemetery was built in 1837, some years before these dates, we are not sure whether this indicates that these pieces came from a later build of some sort. Or are they part of a drainage system of some sort, introduced into the cemetery later - given the mention of sanitary engineering above.
Can you help solve this interesting mystery?
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