Lost Souls: MP Backs Call to Honour Somerset’s Forgotten Asylum Patients
Rachel Gilmour joins calls for local recognition at Cotford St Luke as campaign to memorialise former mental health patients gains momentum
Somerset MP Rachel Gilmour has voiced her support for a national campaign to recognise the thousands of former psychiatric patients buried in unmarked graves across the UK, including those believed to rest at a site near Tone Vale Hospital in Cotford St Luke.
“After learning about the Lost Souls investigation, I am fully committed to supporting the petition to honour the former mental health patients buried across the UK, including right here in Cotford St Luke in my constituency” said Ms Gilmour, MP for Tiverton and Minehead.
“The fact that a quarter of a million people weren’t given a proper, respectful burial is incredibly sad, and I think a National Memorial as well as some form of local recognition would be an important way to remember those who died during that time. Loved ones deserve somewhere to go and pay tribute to relatives from the past.”
Her comments follow the Lost Souls investigation into the forgotten burial grounds linked to former psychiatric institutions, including Tone Vale Hospital, which opened in 1892 as a relief site for the overcrowded Mendip Hospital in Wells. The unmarked plot along Dean Road in Cotford St Luke is believed to be the final resting place for many who died at Tone Vale, though the exact number and identities remain uncertain.
“A place to remember them”
Claire Blackmore, vice chair of the Mendip Hospital Cemetery Trust, welcomed Ms Gilmour’s support and said political and public backing is essential to ensuring these forgotten sites are not lost to time.
“It’s so important to have MPs and local people involved,” said Claire. “They’re the ones who can bring it to public attention. We’ve worked really hard at Mendip to restore our cemetery, it was completely overgrown, neglected for decades, and now it’s a beautiful, peaceful place to remember those 3,000 people buried there. They were each given just a number, not a name, but we’ve done the research to find out who they were. They shouldn’t be forgotten.”
The Mendip Hospital Cemetery, once derelict, was rescued from development by volunteers and local campaigners over twenty years ago. Thanks to their efforts, families can now visit and pay respects at a site that honours those who were once dismissed as “pauper lunatics”, a far cry from the anonymity that many patients at Tone Vale and other hospitals still face.
A life remembered: Mary Ann Norman
Among those thought to be buried at Cotford St Luke is Mary Ann Norman, a woman from Wells whose life tells the human story behind the history.
“Mary Ann was a character,” Claire explained. “She was poor, she struggled with alcoholism, she was arrested many times, but she was also a person like anyone else. She wasn’t ‘insane’, she just had a hard life. When Mendip became overcrowded, she was moved to Cotford, where she died. It would mean a lot to recognise her, and others like her, properly.”
Claire says even a simple plaque acknowledging the former burial ground at Cotford would mean a great deal to local families.
“You probably can’t name everyone buried there, but you can at least recognise that they existed, that this was their resting place,” she said.
“We have no right to forget them.”
A growing movement
The national petition, inspired by Bauer Media’s Lost Souls investigation, has gathered support from heritage groups, mental health advocates, and local volunteers across the country. It calls for a national memorial and funding to help local councils identify and preserve former asylum cemeteries.
Ms Gilmour said she hopes her support will help bring greater awareness to Somerset’s own forgotten history.
“This is about dignity, remembrance, and connection” she said. “These people were part of our communities, their stories are part of our shared past. Recognising that is an important act of respect.”