Mendip Hospital Cemetery in Wells, Somerset, is Listed

Built for the Somerset and Bath County Asylum in the 1870s, the cemetery has been designated a Grade II registered park and garden by Historic England, and the mortuary chapel has been listed as Grade II by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport on the advice of Historic England.

Cemeteries specifically established for asylums are a somewhat rare find. Mendip Hospital is one of just four Victorian asylums in south-west England to have its own cemetery, only two of which also include a mortuary chapel.

The Mendip Hospital cemetery is largely intact and demonstrates a high level of care in providing a dignified place of memorial for the asylum’s patients and staff.

History and design

In 1872 the Somerset and Bath County Asylum Board of Visitors commissioned plans and estimates for a cemetery for the specific use of the asylum. They purchased the three-acre site in 1873 and commissioned Wells surveyor Edwin Hippisley (1815-1897) to carry out the construction. The Bishop of Bath and Wells consecrated the new cemetery on 27 January 1874.

The complexity of its design and layout in the context of asylum cemeteries is unusual and rare. The grid layout of burial plots, tree planting at the junctions of the paths, incorporation of designed views and the inclusion of costly elements such as the mortuary chapel, gate piers and stone boundary walls all contribute to a pleasant and respectful environment. The original planting scheme survives, including some of the ‘four dozen Irish yews’ ordered for the cemetery in February 1880.

The chapel was built between 1878 and 1879 and opened in 1880. Also designed by Hippisley, it is a Gothic Revival-style building which forms the visual focal point within the cemetery’s layout. From its slightly elevated position, the chapel has been carefully positioned to emphasise views of Wells Cathedral and King’s Castle, a prehistoric site a short distance from the city.

The red and white sandstone chapel is well constructed with good quality materials and decorative detailing and retains its original character. In design and construction, the chapel reflects a level of refinement and expense rarely seen in Victorian institutional cemeteries.

Dignified burial and memorialisation

Mendip Hospital’s cemetery reflects the Board of Visitors’ concern to provide a dignified resting place and permanent memorialisation for the asylum’s deceased patients and staff.

At the time, an expanding population and a heightened fear of disease led to an increased interest in the management and provision of public cemeteries. The design of Mendip Hospital’s cemetery was likely influenced by horticultural writer John Claudius Loudon, a leading proponent of cemetery improvement. His ideas about providing sanitary burial places in an attractive landscape of remembrance were widely adopted. At Mendip, they are reflected in the clear layout and planning of the cemetery, along with the attention to individual commemoration, including bespoke headstones and cast-iron grave markers.

Approximately 2,900 burials are recorded in the cemetery, with the last taking place in 1963.

The Friends of Mendip Hospital Cemetery

The site is now leased and managed by the Friends of Mendip Hospital Cemetery, a charity established in 2001 to maintain the grounds and chapel.

The Friends, all unpaid volunteers, look after the burial ground with its varied flora and fauna, raise funds, and research the life stories of the patients and staff buried here.

Each year on All Souls' Day (2 November) a service is held in memory of all those buried in this peaceful place.