Out of Sight, Out of Mind?
25 October 2023
Thousands were remembered through our Out of Sight, Out of Mind? public awareness project.
More than 1,600 individually painted ceramic flowers formed a remarkable act of remembrance for the thousands of women, men and children buried at Horton Cemetery.
The flowers were created as part of Out of Sight, Out of Mind, a digital and arts-based project by the Friends of Horton Cemetery, supported by a grant from Historic England.
At the heart of the project was the work of community genealogical volunteers researching the lives of more than 9,000 people buried in pauper graves at Horton Cemetery.
The project sought to bring those histories back into public view, using research, art and community participation to commemorate people whose stories had largely disappeared from public memory.
Across 22 art-therapy workshops, members of the public explored the life histories of former patients, discussed mental health treatment in the past and present, and painted more than 1,600 ceramic flowers in their memory.
Participants included young people, refugees and asylum seekers, schoolchildren and people with learning disabilities, with several mental health charities also taking part in the workshops.
The finished flowers were brought together to create a crowd-sourced remembrance garden, which was unveiled on World Mental Health Day, 10 October 2023, at The Horton Arts Centre.
The event began with a ceremony in the field adjacent to the cemetery, with readings, reflections and singing by the choir of St Joseph’s School, Epsom.
A piper then led a procession on foot from the Cemetery to the grounds of the former Horton Chapel that is now the Horton Arts Centre. There an innovative photo-art exhibition of former patients of the Epsom cluster of psychiatric hospitals was displayed.
More than 300 people attended the unveiling, including our patron Baroness Sheila Hollins, representatives of Epsom and Ewell Borough Council, Members of Parliament and members of the media.
At least 7,000 people engaged with the display during the following weeks. Its run was subsequently extended for a further month, with the installation remaining in place until 15 December 2023.
The display also featured in Gemma Collins’ episode of the BBC television series Who Do You Think You Are? where Gemma discovered her Grandmother was in both Long Grove and St. Ebba’s. She was admitted to St. Ebba’s in 1951 aged 13. Re-Admitted to Long Grove 04.03.1955.
Beyond creating a visual memorial, the workshops provided an opportunity for conversations about mental health and how its treatment and understanding have changed over time.
For the Friends of Horton Cemetery, the project also offered another way of bringing the charity’s extensive community research to a wider audience.
Behind every ceramic flower was a reminder of the thousands of individual lives represented by Horton Cemetery — people whose histories the Friends and its volunteers continue to research, commemorate and bring back into public memory.
BBC Radio Surrey – BBC Radio Surrey, Remembering Epsom’s forgotten residents