Kehilat Middlesbrough Newsletter No 25 September 2008 page 3 (of 5)
Letters
Just read Freddie Fishburn's account of his Middlesbrough memories.
He says that the family home was on the corner of Cambridge Road and Thornfield Road. He also says that the house was known as the 'grey' house.
However, I seem to remember the family living in a house on the corner of Cambridge Road and Thornfield Grove.
If Freddie is correct, then his former home is now the Grey House Hotel. If so, there is another Jewish connection to the house.
Sometime in the eighties, (I cannot remember the exact year) a keen cyclist arrived from Israel to North Yorkshire with the intention of doing a cycling tour.
Unfortunately, he was involved in an accident and was taken to Middlesbrough General Hospital in a coma.
At the time, he had no identification.
With him not contacting his family in Israel, the family made investigations and tracked him down to the hospital. They flew over, and stayed at the Grey House while the cyclist recovered enough to fly back to Israel.
Please could you pass this onto Freddie. Tony Frais Leeds, England
My old home is indeed now the Grey House Hotel. My late Aunt Dora Menasche used to stay there when she went to Middlesbrough to go to the cemetery, where all that is left of my late family lies.
I went to see the house on my last visit to the Boro' when the community was, so to speak, shut down and its exterior had not altered but there were several internal alterations. It is still imposing.
We moved from there to Brierfield in Harrow Road, even more imposing, after my grandmother died in 1947.
Can you remember the name of the Israeli cyclist who was injured?
Could it have been Chaim Rockman who came there. He is the son of my late mother's cousin who made aliyah to Israel shortly after Independence. Chaim lives near Jerusalem and he is a tour guide, primarily for cyclists. Freddy Fishburn
Lovely newsy Newsletter...very well compiled and the very dignified photo at the end of Yetta Rothfield's headstone.
Perhaps you would pass on to Fred Levy, who first started as a House Doctor at North Riding Infirmary Newport Road in 1947 just after qualifying, that it has indeed just been pulled down and is to be a big ALDI supermarket, plus a "posh" hotel for central Middlesbrough.
Interestingly enough, the main architect of this Infirmary site, Jewish Joe Gellert, based in Newcastle, is also in charge of the maintenance of all the north-east Jewish cemeteries, including Middlesbrough, of course, as we gave £25,000 to Newcastle to maintain the Middlesbrough, Stockton and Hartlepool cemeteries. Gwen Lamb Middlesbrough
I have been looking at the burial records and photos on your website and wondered if you would be kind enough to let us place a link to them on our website Genpals Cemetery Project www.genpals.com
As you can see from the site we are recording tombstone inscriptions and then conducting genealogical research on the individuals so we can add details of their immediate family history.
We are a two person team from London UK and welcome as much help as we can get!
We could either open a Middlesborough section and place a link within that or add the details of each of the individuals and link to the appropriate photo on your site with the copyright stating that the photo is on www.kmbro.org
Please let me know what you think. Gaby Laws www.genpals.com
[Ed note: We replied as follows:
I think you will find it easier to open a special section to cover the Middlesbrough, Stockton and Hartlepool cemeteries and put the link within that section.
Good luck with your project - it will keep you busy for years!]