LOST SOULS: MPs call for National Memorial for 'forgotten' mental health patients
Our Lost Souls investigation has been uncovering the fate of a quarter of a million graves of former asylum patients from across the UK
Last updated 21 hours ago
The results of our Lost Souls investigation into the fate of Victorian-era asylum graves have reached the UK Parliament.
Throughout the year we've been sharing stories of graves that lie unmarked and abandoned across the UK - which belong to people who lived and died as mental health patients.
Around a quarter of a million "pauper lunatics" are thought to be buried in such graves across the UK. Many plots are neglected, some are abandoned - and some sold off.
LISTEN: The Lost Souls documentary lays bare the shocking scale of the issue
'Pauper lunatic' graves lie across the UK
The project has received backing from politicians, charities and campaigners, and a petition has been set up calling for a national memorial to be created in honour of those whose stories are lost.
Helen Maguire MP has now set down an Early Day Motion calling for action too - both for a site in her constituency, but also to help return dignity to similar sites across the country.
Horton Cemetery in Surrey - which we visited back in the summer - has 9000 bodies inside, but it was sold off to a private landowner in the 1980s, and is now completely inaccessible to the public, or the families of those within.
It's believed to be the biggest site of its kind in Europe.
WATCH: Senior Correspondent Mick Coyle visits Horton Cemetery
The Motion asks that Parliament: "recognises the significant historic, cultural and community value of Horton Cemetery, the final resting place of more than 9,000 former patients of the Epsom cluster of psychiatric hospitals," and "notes that the site has deteriorated into increasing dereliction and, being privately owned, has become largely inaccessible to the public."
Calls for action following the Lost Souls investigation
The text, which has received backing from a host of MPs "further recognises the vital contribution of projects such as the Lost Souls in bringing to light the lives and stories of those historically stigmatised because of mental ill health; also notes that the continued neglect, inaccessibility and threat of development serve to perpetuate the silence, shame and marginalisation that many of these individuals faced in life."
Helen Maguire also calls for a lasting monument to the Lost Souls whose stories we've uncovered: "and urges the Government to explore the establishment of a national memorial to honour those who lived and died in institutional settings, ensuring their stories are remembered with dignity and respect."
You can read more about the Lost Souls investigation and listen to the full story in our Lost Souls documentary
If you'd like to contact Senior Correspondent Mick Coyle, you can email [email protected]