Could waste ground hold graves of former mental patients?
An overgrown and untended patch of waste ground in St Albans appears to contain the unmarked graves of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of former mental patients. Pamela Harding, who travelled from Wales on Monday in a search for the remains of her grandmother, Bertha Day, was horrified by the poor state of the former Hill End Hospital cemetery. Only a handful of gravestones are visible, and the land is overgrown with weeds and besmirched by discarded beer cans. She said: “I feel awful – Bertha had an awful life, and she was just dumped in the hospital for years. Now it seems she has been dumped on since. It is disgusting. I wanted to put some flowers on her grave, but it is just a wilderness. I am sure other people will want to know where their relatives are. There should be a plan somewhere. I am sure she is there somewhere, but where?” The former cemetery off Hill End Road, opposite Russet Drive, is extremely difficult to find, and a sign which presumably once told visitors about the ma
