Out of sight, out of mind?

Welcome to our online exhibition, showcasing thought-provoking photographs and works of art which explore our understanding of the diagnosis, treatment and experience of mental illness. This gallery uses special 19th-century glass plate negatives from The Manor Hospital in the Epsom Cluster to explore the lives and legacy of patients admitted to the hospital and buried in Horton Cemetery, Europe’s largest asylum cemetery.

Discover

Out of sight, out of mind?

Welcome to our online exhibition, showcasing thought-provoking photographs and works of art which explore our understanding of the diagnosis, treatment and experience of mental illness. This gallery uses special 19th-century glass plate negatives from The Manor Hospital in the Epsom Cluster to explore the lives and legacy of patients admitted to the hospital and buried in Horton Cemetery, Europe’s largest asylum cemetery.

Discover

These photos were often taken on admission when patients are seen to be smartly dressed and well groomed. Some appear comfortable with having their photograph taken whilst others resisted or needed ‘assistance’ to pose. There is no single, clear reason why the photos were taken. Was it a simple aid for recognition around the hospital? Or can the practice of patient photography be traced back to the eighteenth-century interest in physiognomy? Some archived case records feature two photos – on admission and discharge. How do such photos shape and affect our understanding of the lived experience of mental illness?

Through our gallery, you will have the opportunity to get an insight into the lives of each patient through scans and transcripts of their original medical records from patient case books, demonstrating the type of biographic and diagnostic information collected and the medicalised, often pathologised language used around their characterisation and treatment. Many of these patient casebooks were thrown in skips or waterlogged and damaged when the Epsom hospitals closed down as there was thought to be no need to keep them. Ultimately, this means that much of the life histories and material legacy for some of the patients in the Epsom Cluster is lost.

We have also created some information sheets on a variety of topics: asylum experience, class, diagnosis, gender, religion, visitors; as well as an interactive map, which will explain more about mental health in the context of Victorian and Edwardian Britain.

We aim to raise awareness around the history of mental health and to provide a platform for forgotten individuals’ stories to be seen and heard.

Whether you are a resident of the local area, have a lived experience of mental health treatment, or are interested in exploring the history of mental illness, we invite you to browse our collection and engage with the lives and experiences of these forgotten individuals.

This exhibition has been made possible through the collaborative work of Dr Alana Harris, Dr Eric Fong, and the Friends of Horton Cemetery. We also wish to give special thanks to Historic England, King’s College London and Surrey History Centre for their support.

The Project

The Patients

Catherine Downey

Widow who suffered from religious mania and prolonged mental stress

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Downey

Date of Birth: 1836
Date of Death: 29th January 1915
Admission date and diagnosis: 9th February 1910, Senile Dementia
Cause of Death: Senile decay and Valvular disease of the heart
Grave Number: 1921

Frederick Tarrant

His previous residence was listed as the Workhouses in Chelsea, London. He worked in the cowshed and on the farmyard.

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Tarrant

Date of Birth: c.1868
Date of Death: November 1941
Admission date and diagnosis: 5th May 1904. Chronic mania.
Cause of Death: Unknown
Grave Number: 2366b

Francis Elliot Roads

Transferred from Manor Asylum, he worked in the hospital grounds and with the Epsom cluster coal porters..

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Roads

Date of Birth: c.1871
Date of Death: 6th February 1946
Admission date and diagnosis: 13th April 1910. Primary dementia.
Cause of Death: Unknown
Grave Number: 2745b

Jane Sarah Reeve

A successful, independent businesswoman admitted to the asylum in her 60s

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Reeve

Date of birth: 10th January 1840
Date of death: 1st November 1912
Admission date and diagnosis: 19th April 1900 – Melancholia
Cause of death: not mentioned – likely to be old age, as she was 72 when she died
Grave number: 1892b.

Louisa Sarah Fox Oliver

A Camden Town mantle finisher persecuted by voices who claimed to be related to the Queen.

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Louisa

Date of Birth: 1832
Date of Death: 5th April 1908
Admission date and diagnosis: 8th September 1899. Mania.
Cause of Death: Senile decay and Atrophy of the brain
Grave Number: 123b

Harriet Massey

Transferred from Milton Asylum, Portsmouth. She carried out work on the ward.

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Date of Birth: 1833?
Date of Death: 10 October 1907.
Admission date and diagnosis: 3rd November 1899. Melancholia.
Cause of Death: Valvular disease of heart.
Grave Number: 21a

Matilda Lark

A housewife who imagined her family’s visits.

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Lark

Date of Birth: 1848?
Date of Death: 14th February 1913
Admission date and diagnosis: 27th September 1911, confusional insanity
Cause of death: Carcinoma of oesophagus
Grave number: Unknown
No Friends of Horton biography

Caroline Appleton

A thrice widowed parasol maker and mother

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Appleton

Date of Birth: 1831, Gravesend
Date of Death: 5 March, 1911
Admission date and diagnosis: 20 April 1901, ‘pauper lunatic’
Cause of Death: unknown, but possibly old age
Grave Number: 1109a

Caroline Ward

An unmarrried and troubled domestic servant with no known relatives

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Caroline Ward

Date of birth: 1875
Date of death: 23rd April 1910
Admission date & diagnosis: 19th February 1910, confusional insanity
Cause of death: valvular disease of the heart, syncope
Grave number: 739b

Susan Burton

A housekeeper with grandiose delusions of being a duchess.

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Susan Burton

Date of Birth: 1845
Date of Death: 5th July 1916
Admission date and diagnosis: October 12th 1897
Cause of Death: Senile decay and heart disease
Grave Number: 2226a

Emma White

A ‘well-behaved’ and silent woman, originally from Vauxhall

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Emma White

Date of birth: Between late 1855 and mid 1856
Date of death: December 28th, 1910
Admission date & diagnosis: 22nd June 1899, dementia
Cause of death: primary – congested lungs; secondary – renal cirrhosis, fatty generation of heart.
Grave number: not known?

Kate Young

Troubled with violent episodes from youth, she spent most of her life in asylums

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Kate Young

Date of Birth: 1862, St Pancras
Date of Death: 20 February 1920
Admission date and diagnosis: Horton, 1886 and 1899; ‘spinal disease’, ‘suicidal’ and ‘dangerous to others’. Previously in Banstead, Portsmouth, Colney Hatch (1916-19)
Cause of Death: Typhoid fever, perforation and general peritonitis (stomach infection).
Grave Number: 38b

Mary Ann Earing

A grieving mother whose remaining family visited her often.

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Mary Ann Earing

Date of birth: 1837
Death of Death: 1909
Admission date and Diagnosis: 1899, loss of memory and delusions, dementia
Cause of Death: heart disease
Grave number: 443a

Ida Ellen Evans

A young housewife and maid afflicted by syphilis

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EVANS, Ida Ellen

Date of Birth: 1876
Date of Death: 28th December, 1913
Admission date and diagnosis: 24th January 1913
Cause of death: General Paralysis of the Insane / Syphilis
Grave number: 809a

Kate Bailey

A long history of mental illness, compounded by childbirth

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BAILEY, Kate

Date of Birth: 1882, Abingdon
Date of Death: 19 May 1914
Admission date and diagnosis: 9 June 1910, two weeks after the birth of her second child
Cause of Death: unknown
Grave Number: 1043b

Charlotte Gregg

A one-time servant to a Baronet and Chief Clerk in the Colonial Office, her path to the Manor Asylum is unclear

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GREGG, Charlotte

Date of birth: c1841, Kensington
Date of death: 14th of September 1911
Admission date & diagnosis: 18 May 1910, symptoms unknown
Cause of death: unknown
Grave number: 1079b

Lavinia pply. Nevilla Elizabeth Thredgill

Estranged from her bigamous husband before dying from uterus cancer

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Female Burials Manor Asylum Photo THREDGILL, Lavinia pply. Nevilla Elizabeth

Date of Birth: March 1858, Bermondsey
Date of Death: 18 April 1911
Admission date and diagnosis: unknown
Cause of Death: Valvular disease of heart and carcinoma uterus
Grave Number: 1135b

Ellen (Nellie) Simcock

Transferred from Holborn Workhouse and much visited by family and friends

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SIMCOCK, Ellen (Nellie)

 Date of Birth: 1873, Wivenhoe
Date of Death: 1 November 1915
Admission date and diagnosis: unknown
Cause of Death: unknown
Grave Number: 1831b

Rose Matilda Edith Harris

Moved from Kent Asylum and regularly visited by Edward Buckland

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HARRIS, Rose Matilda Edith

Date of Birth: 1879, Lewisham
Date of Death: 6 September, 1919
Admission date and diagnosis: unknown
Cause of Death: unknown
Grave Number: 28b

Henrietta Corke

Transferred from Isle of Wight County Asylum and was visited by her niece Emily Sherwood

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CORKE, Henrietta

Date of Birth: 1826?
Date of Death: 2nd November 1907
Admission date and diagnosis: 9th October 1899. Mania.
Cause of Death: Senile decay and atrophy of the brain.
Grave Number: 31a

Catherine Louisa Freston

Transferred from Hanwell Asylum, Middlesex. She was originally from Gloucestershire.

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FRESTON, Catherine Louisa

Date of Birth: Unknown, Gloucestershire
Date of Death: 12th January 1914
Admission date and diagnosis: 22nd November 1907. Chronic mania.
Cause of Death: Unknown
Grave Number: 823a

Harriet King

Transferred from Banstead Asylum, Sutton. She was visited regularly by her daughter, Harriet Emeline Ashenden.

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KING, Harriet

Date of Birth: 22nd January 1836, Bethnal Green.
Date of Death: 26th June 1913
Admission date and diagnosis: 7th September 1899. Dementia
Cause of Death: Senile decay and valvular disease of heart.
Grave Number: 591b

Priscilla Jackson

Housekeeper, widow and mother of young children (who worked as a nurse in an asylum before her own committal), ‘worry seems to have unhinged her mind’

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JACKSON, Priscilla

Date of Birth: 16th August 1849, Marlingford, Norfolk
Date of Death: 22nd October 1913
Admission date and diagnosis: 9th August 1899. Acute restless melancholia.
Cause of Death: Valvular disease of the heart
Grave Number: 779b

Annie Harriet Hodges

Transferred from Fisherton House Asylum, Salisbury. She worked as a needleworker on the ward.

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HODGES, Annie Harriet

Date of Birth: 16th August 1831, Camden
Date of Death: 5th May 1911
Admission date and diagnosis: 26th June 1899. Senile mania.
Cause of Death: Valvular disease of heart and parotitis.
Grave Number: 1153b

Elizabeth Flaxman

Transferred from Fisherton House Asylum, Salisbury. She carried out needlework on the ward.

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FLAXMAN, Elizabeth

Date of Birth: 1846, Stepney
Date of Death: 30th November 1911
Admission date and diagnosis: 17th June 1899. Dementia.
Cause of Death: Pleurisy and valvular disease of heart.
Grave Number: 1319b

Maria Milton

Housewife who suffered delusions from “alcoholic excess”

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Maria Milton

Date of Birth:  January 1858, Tunbridge Wells Kent
Date of Death: 7th April 1912
Admission date and diagnosis: June 16th 1899, Secondary dementia
Cause of Death: ‘General paralysis’ (often understood as untreated syphilis)
Grave Number: 1379a

Forget Me Not: A Memorial Garden for Horton Cemetery

On World Mental Health Day (Tuesday 10 October 2023), we will seek to bring recognition and dignity to Epsom’s forgotten residents through unveiling a crowd-sourced memorial garden.

Supported by funding from Historic England, ‘Friends of Horton Cemetery’ has run dozens of art-therapy workshops at which ordinary members of the public, of all ages and backgrounds, talked about mental health and disability while painting flowers.

Join us from 13:00 – 15:00 for a Ceremony of Commemoration at the Cemetery site (KT19 8QG), followed by the Memorial Garden unveiling and celebration in Haven Way, Epsom (KT19 8NP) with art, dance, commissioned music, a children’s choir and a theatrical evocation of those who were previously kept out of sight and out of mind.

Together we will seek to bring recognition and dignity to the forgotten.

View Events      Download Flyer

‘Cyanotype Apparitions’ – Dr Eric Fong

Dr Eric Fong’s artistic project, ‘Cyanotype Apparitions’ experiments with cyanotype photography, interleaving the glass plate negatives of Horton Cemetery patients with organic matter foraged from the Cemetery site.

With funding support from a King’s College London Artist in Residency, he has overlain plant cuttings and soil onto the photographs – evoking the transmutation of patients’ graves and the organic material of their bodies into the new growth such as trees, vegetation and foliage.

Gathered botanical materials, such as ivy, have also been crushed to produce a site-specific dye, meaning that some of the reconstituted patient portraits have been produced with a brown or dark green tint, rather than the traditional Prussian blue. He has also reflected artistically on the work undertaken the hospitals, such as needlework.

‘Us and Them’ – Emma Brown

With funding from an AHRC IAA Thematic grant, eight disabled artists will research the life histories of disabled patients whose photographs were taken within Surrey psychiatric institutions. Working with a tintype expert photographer, Emma Brown 

participants will co-create portraits of themselves – re-staging and provocatively ‘pairing’ their images with those generated under profoundly different conditions (and with highly dubious forms of consent) in the Victorian past.

An exhibition of these prints will be staged from 1 – 15 December 2023 at The Horton Epsom.

Artistic Creations and Interpretations

Out of sight, out of mind?

Friends of Horton Cemetery’s Public Awareness Project

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