Sussex Asylums Burial Grounds Project

The Stories

All our stories are about mental health patients who died in the Sussex County Asylum in Haywards Heath, Sussex between the years of 1860 and 1953, the years during which the Asylum burial grounds were used. In 1953 the cemetery was closed for further burials. Like all the UK County Asylums this institution had several name changes over the years and was eventually (1948) named St. Francis Hospital. It will be referred to from now on in this section as St. Francis Hospital.

When patients died in the hospital their named next of kin was informed and given a period to claim the body for disposal in the place of their choice. If the next of kin did not respond, could not be found or declined the opportunity to dispose of the body, the body was buried in the hospital burial ground, unnamed and with very limited marking, usually just a grave number. There are just under 4,000 such burials in the St. Francis Hospital burial ground which can be located today about 200 metres north west of the main car park nearest the main entrance to the Princess Royal Hospital, Haywards Heath, Sussex. There is currently no indication that this burial ground and its 4,000 residents are there.

Unless stated otherwise in the story text every one of our stories is based on the information in a single entry of almost 4,000 such entries in the Sussex Asylum (eventually named St. Francis Hospital) burial record books. Each entry is the record of the burial of one person. There are usually eight entries on each page of the burial, here is an example of a page layout.