Call for public ownership of asylum cemetery

The memory of those buried in a Surrey cemetery between five psychiatric hospitals "deserves to be respected and preserved", say those calling for the land to be brought into public ownership.

Horton Cemetery has been privately owned since 1983, according to an organisation hoping to turn the site into a memorial for the dead.

Friends of Horton Cemetery says there were about 9,000 people buried at the 5 acre (2 hectare) site in Epsom between 1899 and 1955 from the five hospitals.

The organisation claims it is the largest abandoned hospital cemetery in Europe.

The piece of land was surrounded by a cluster five of institutions, known as the Horton Estate.

These were the Manor Asylum, Horton Asylum, Ewell Epileptic Colony, Long Grove Asylum and West Park Asylum, built by the London County Council to alleviate pressure on the city's existing asylums.

Historian Alana Harris previously told BBC Radio Surrey if families could not afford to bury relatives who had died at the asylums they would be buried in paupers' graves in Horton Cemetery.

Raising concerns that tombstones at the site had been moved and that badgers were digging up bones, she said returning the land to public ownership would mean relatives of those buried there would be able to visit their graves.

She added: "It's a site of national, perhaps even international significance, but you wouldn't know it to look at it."

Lionel Blackman, honorary secretary of the Friends of Horton Cemetery, said the land should not be classified as amenity woodland.

He said more and more relatives of those buried at the site were coming forward, both in Britain and from around the world.

Mr Blackman added: "It's important in this day and age to treat those who have suffered from mental illness equally, whether dead or alive."

On Tuesday, Epsom and Ewell Borough Council will debate a motion brought by Councillors Kieran Persand and Bernie Muir to reclassify the land the cemetery is on, and for the council to start a compulsory purchase order of the site.

The motion said: "Horton Cemetery, the largest asylum cemetery in Europe, holds significant historical and cultural importance to our community.

"It serves as the final resting place for thousands of individuals, and their memory deserves to be respected and preserved."

They said it was "abhorrent" that the tombstones of the dead had been removed.

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