Medieval cemetery

The land the Botanic Garden sits on has been a burial ground twice. Around 1190 the Jews of Oxford purchased a water meadow just outside the city walls and established a burial ground. Then in 1231 the land, now owned by Magdalen College, was appropriated by the Hospital of St John and a small section of wasteland, now the Rose Garden belonging to Magdalen College, was given to the Jews for a new cemetery.