Image source, South West Heritage Trust

"They were called lunatics and imbeciles, idiots. The terms dementia or schizophrenia weren't known. Psychiatry was an infant science"

In a Somerset town a small group of volunteers are slowly and sensitively revealing the stories of those who lived at the Somerset and Bath Pauper Lunatic Asylum.

"Patients who were put in there were dirt poor," said Clare Blackmore, one of the volunteers.

"They had nothing. There were quite a few children in there. It often says in their notes, the mother cannot cope anymore," she added.

The asylum opened in South Horrington near Wells in 1848, initially caring for 300 patients.

It admitted patients from Somerset and Bristol and was later known as the Mendip Hospital, before the building closed in 1991.

"It was run by Dr Robert Boyd when it opened," Ms Blackmore said.

"He believed in the moral treatment of the insane. He believed in kindness, care, exercise, good nutrition and a bed to sleep in.

"He would feed the patients up, they would learn occupations, have music therapy, entertainment. He said if you could improve the physical, the mental condition would improve too," she added.

Land close to the asylum was set aside for the burial of patients and a chapel was created on the site.

About 2,900 burials took place there but when the asylum closed, the cemetery was abandoned.

Image source, South West Heritage Trust

It became overgrown and was earmarked for housing but a campaign by the community in Wells led to the site being saved, with volunteers restoring the land as a nature reserve.

As the patients were paupers, there were no headstones. Instead, each grave was given an iron marker with a number to identify the person buried in the plot.

Many of the original markers have been uprooted and now lie in clusters around the cemetery but the volunteers are planning to identify where each patient is buried and install a plaque to remember them individually.

"We've got the records for everyone who is buried here," said Peter Jaggard, who chairs the volunteer group.

"They tell us who they are, their next of kin, their occupation, their description from the hospital records.

"We're compiling a database and people can come and find their relatives or read about the working classes of the 19th Century.

"These people were well cared for. It wasn't called asylum for nothing. People think oh, lunatic asylum, bad place, but people seek asylum. It was for people to be looked after," he added.

For decades, the lives of many asylum residents were effectively forgotten. Their notes have remained hidden from . Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk

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