Jew's Court | |
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![]() The façade of Jew's Court in | |
Religion | |
Affiliation | Reform Judaism |
Rite | Liberal |
Ecclesiastical or organisational status | |
Location | |
Location | Steep Hill, Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England |
Country | United Kingdom |
Location of the museum in Lincolnshire | |
Geographic coordinates | 53°13′56″N0°32′19″W / 53.2322°N 0.5387°W |
Architecture | |
Style | Norman architecture |
Completed | c. 1170 |
Materials | Stone |
Listed Building – Grade I | |
Official name | Jew's Court |
Type | Listed building |
Designated | 7 October 1953 |
Reference no. | 1388769 |
[1] [2] |
Jews' Court is a Jewish museum and Liberal Jewish congregation and synagogue, located on Steep Hill in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England, in the United Kingdom. The building was listed as a Grade I building in 1953 [2] and houses the headquarters of the Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology. [3]
Jews' Court is located immediately above Jew's House on Steep Hill. The three-storeyed stone building dates from c. 1170 but was altered in the 18th century and the windows were replaced in the early-19th and 20th centuries. [2] The Jews' Court may contain some late medieval stonework but a recent architectural survey has shown that there is very little medieval stonework above basement level in the existing building. [4] : 13 Historian Cecil Roth believed it to be the site of a medieval synagogue. Documentary evidence of 1290 when the Jewish community of Lincoln was expelled shows that the Jews' Court has always been divided into two houses, and a charter of 1316 mentions that a Jewish scola or synagogue had stood to the west in the tenement behind these two houses. [4] : 11–13
In 1910, a well was dug in the basement of the building; the owner subsequently claimed that this was where the body of Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln had been found and charged people to see it. [5]
By the early-20th century the property had been sub-divided into cheap accommodation. It was bought by Lincoln City Council in 1924 and in 1928 it was proposed to be demolished under a slum clearance order. Lincolnshire Architectural and Archaeological Society (a predecessor of the Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology) objected to the proposed demolition and were given the building by the city council on condition it was refurbished. In 1966 the property passed from Lincolnshire Architectural and Archaeological Society to form the Jews' Court and Bardney Abbey Trust, which in 2019 was merged with the Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology. [6] The Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology has its headquarters at Jews' Court and the building includes a lecture room and bookshop. [3]
The Lincolnshire Jewish Community, which is affiliated with Liberal Judaism, in 1992 began holding Shabbat and High Holy Day services in the lecture room at Jews' Court; [7] one of the services was filmed in the TV series The Story of the Jews by Simon Schama.
Lincoln is a cathedral city and district in Lincolnshire, England, of which it is the county town. In the 2021 Census, the Lincoln district had a population of 103,813. The 2021 census gave the urban area of Lincoln, including North Hykeham and Waddington, a recorded population of 127,540.
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Tupholme is a village in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated 11 miles (18 km) east from Lincoln, and is the site of the ruined Tupholme Abbey on the road between Horncastle and Bardney. The population is included in the civil parish of Bucknall.
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The Jew's House is one of the earliest extant town houses in England, estimated to have been built around 1170. It is situated on Steep Hill in Lincoln, immediately below Jew's Court. The house has traditionally been associated with the thriving Jewish community in Medieval Lincoln. Antisemitic hysteria was stoked by a notorious 1255 blood libel alleging that the mysterious death of a Christian child, known as Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln, was the result of him being kidnapped and ritually killed by Jews. In 1290, the entire Jewish community was expelled from England by Edward I, and the Jew's House is said to have been seized from a Jewish owner. The building has remained continuously occupied to the present day. Since about 1973 it has been used as a restaurant; prior to that it had been an antiques shop for many years.
Bardney Abbey in Lincolnshire, England, was a Benedictine monastery founded in 697 by King Æthelred of Mercia, who was to become the first abbot. The monastery was supposedly destroyed during a Danish raid in 869. In 1087, the site was refounded as a priory, by Gilbert de Gant, Earl of Lincoln, and it regained status as an abbey in 1115.
The Old Synagogue is a former Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue, located at 944 King Street in Canterbury, Kent, England, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1720, the congregation worshiped in the Ashkenazi rite until it was dissolved in c. 1911. Between 2008 and 2004, a non-denominational Jewish community occasionally worshiped in the former synagogue.
The Guildford Synagogue is an Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue, located on York Road, in Guildford, Surrey, England, in the United Kingdom. The congregation was established in the 1940s, initially as the Guildford United Synagogue Membership Group, however the congregation ceased to exist from 1947. Following World War II, the Guildford & District Jewish Community, who worship in the Ashkenazi rite, was formed; and their synagogue building was completed in 1979.
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