Calls grow for memorial at forgotten asylum cemetery near Lincoln

A quiet field on the edge of Bracebridge Heath hides a long and largely forgotten chapter of Lincolnshire’s history.

Beneath it lie more than 4,000 former patients of St John’s Hospital - once known as Lincolnshire County Mental Asylum – buried in unmarked graves, many two or three to a plot.

The cemetery closed in 1957, and gravestones and markers were removed. For years, the land was used as horse pasture before being handed to the parish council in the 1990s.

Since then, councillors and local volunteers have worked to clear the site, add signage, and preserve it as grassland.

But now there are calls for something more permanent: a memorial that recognises the thousands buried there and restores dignity to their resting place.

Parish councillor Sue Manders, who has been leading research into the burials, says:

“Personally, I’d like to see some sort of memorial or more information. People look at it and think, why is it just an open grassland? I think it’s part of our history, and it mustn’t be forgotten.”

“They weren’t respected”

Much of Sue’s work has involved painstakingly reconstructing the burial records.

Two of the cemetery’s original grave books were saved, but one is missing. What survives reveals a picture of overcrowding and neglect.

The youngest buried there was just six weeks old; the oldest in their 90s.

“Several of the graves have two people buried in them, some three. The layout wasn’t respected."

Sue says the records also highlight how attitudes to mental health have changed:

“There were ladies in there with postnatal depression, people with manic depression – things that are all treatable now.

"Children who were blind or had educational difficulties were put into the hospital. We wouldn’t do that today.”

St John’s is not alone. Similar unmarked asylum cemeteries have been uncovered at Rauceby near Sleaford and across the UK.

This story forms part of our Lost Souls project, investigating the hidden histories of asylum cemeteries and how society has treated its most vulnerable.

At Bracebridge Heath, the parish council continues to care for the cemetery as open space. But for Sue, the work is far from over:

“It’s still a consecrated cemetery. There are thousands of people in there with families still living in the area. It’s about respect – and remembering them properly.”