The Cluster
The Friends of Horton Cemetery focus on the people buried at Horton Cemetery, but it is useful to include here some details about the cluster of hospitals in which these people spent their final days.
The Epsom Cluster of mental hospitals, also referred to as the Horton Estate, was a group of five large psychiatric hospitals situated on land to the west of Epsom. There are many sites which offer an outstanding amount of information on the “The Epsom cluster” but here is a brief overview.
The hospitals were built by the London County Council to alleviate pressure on London’s existing lunatic asylums, which had by this time become overcrowded. The County Council continued to manage them until they were nationalised, becoming part of the National Health Service in 1948.
The Manor Asylum Epsom Cluster #1
Horton Asylum Epsom Cluster #2
Ewell Epileptic Colony Epsom Cluster #3
Long Grove Asylum Epsom Cluster #4