Sealions and Moses Montefiore in Ramsgate
This image is taken from the Woodward family grave in Ramsgate cemetery (confusingly also called Margate cemetery)which I revisited a couple of weeks ago. It is the only memorial I have come across that features performing sealions including their (unsuccessful) role in detecting enemy submarines in the First World War.
I came across the work of the Woodwards – and the sealions – in a paper Dr David Wilson , now at the University of Leicester,gave to the Minding Animals conference in Newcastle, Australia a couple of years ago.
On returning to walk back along the clifftop to Broadstairs we came across this synagogue and mausoleum, that was totally un-signposted and surrounded by the overgrown gardens of a Victorian estate. It turns out to have been built by Moses Montefiore who had bought the land from Queen Caroline. Further details at the Montefiore Endowment site. Some of the grounds are now a municipal park – complete with workshops in a former nineteenth century mock castle complete with ‘italian’ greenhouse. Worth a diversion – though not too sure about the wording around the clock!
Caption on synagogue built by Moses Montefiore
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