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Horton Cemetery: Campaign to Save 9,000 Untold Stories
26 Apr
Summary
- Over 9,000 former psychiatric patients are buried in Surrey's Horton Cemetery.
- Campaigners seek to return the site to public ownership for preservation.
- The cemetery holds stories of a Titanic survivor and a muse of Picasso.
A significant campaign is striving to bring Horton Cemetery, a vast burial ground in Surrey, England, back into public ownership. This five-acre site is the resting place for approximately 9,000 former patients from what was once Europe's largest cluster of psychiatric hospitals. These individuals, many of whom ended up in pauper's graves between 1899 and 1955, represent a rich resource for historians.
The charity Friends of Horton Cemetery is spearheading the effort, aiming to transform the neglected, privately owned site into a public garden, nature reserve, and memorial. Volunteer researchers have already uncovered the stories of around 500 individuals buried there, revealing diverse lives including a Titanic survivor and a muse of Picasso. The campaign seeks to honor these forgotten souls and challenge the lingering stigma surrounding mental illness.
Historically, the Epsom cluster of asylums admitted individuals for a variety of reasons, some now considered shocking, such as trauma after miscarriage or having children out of wedlock. Burials ceased in 1955 as treatment for mental health evolved. The cemetery grounds were sold to a property firm in 1983, and have remained largely neglected since, prompting calls for its restoration and proper memorialization.
