Campaigners to lobby new council on cemetery future

Campaigners calling for better recognition of a cemetery where thousands of people are buried say they will lobby a new council for change when it takes over.

The Friends of Horton Cemetery is calling for the privately owned site, where up to 9,000 people are buried, to be brought into public ownership and to serve as a memorial.

The site in Epsom was used for burials between 1899 and 1955, when it was between five psychiatric hospitals known as the Horton Estate.

Lionel Blackman, secretary of the Friends group, said the organisation would "lobby a fresh-thinking team" on the new East Surrey Council, due to take over in April, regarding a compulsory purchase order.

An open day on Saturday, held as part of Heritage Open Days, included an exhibition and talks at the nearby Horton Arts Centre, a former chapel within the 1,000-acre former psychiatric hospital site.

Visitors could also walk a perimeter bridle path around the cemetery following permission from the landowner of the adjacent farm, Blackman said.

The site has been privately owned since 1983, when it was sold by the Department of Health and Social Care.

Concerns have previously been raised about the condition of the site, which researchers say has "all sorts of people, all walks of life" buried there.

There were about 200 visitors to the cemetery perimeter event, Blackman said, including "many relatives from near and far" descended from those buried there.

"All of this contributes importantly to a renewed campaign for a compulsory purchase order," he added.

He said a previous attempt had "failed" with Epsom and Ewell Borough Council (EEBC) "on specious grounds", but that the organisation would continue to push with the new council in April.

Councillor Neil Dallen, strategy and resources committee chair at EEBC, said since the sale of the cemetery, nature had "taken its course, and the site has become a woodland".

He added: "The site is protected from commercial development by the Disused Burial Grounds Act 1884, is excluded from development in the council's emerging borough Local Plan and has additional protection against development due to its Local Listing as a place of significant local heritage, which has been in place since 2004."

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