In 2000 the people of Wells were alerted that it was proposed to sell the land containing the Chapel and graves of 2,900 persons who had been patients or staff of the Mendip Hospital. The last burial took place in 1963.
A meeting was held in the Town Hall and the outcome of this meeting was the formation of The Friends of Mendip Hospital Cemetery. The Friends have been in operation since this date. After a great deal of work the site is now a pleasure to visit. The aim is to keep the site in pristine condition and to encourage people to visit on open weekends.
One of the gratifying outcomes of work undertaken by the committee is tracing peoples' relatives who are at rest in the Cemetery. This task is ongoing and helped by the formation of a register of all the people buried there. This was compiled by one of the Friends and represents a lot of hard work over the last couple of years.
The aims of the Friends of Mendip Hospital Cemetery charity are:
“To preserve and protect the former Mendip Hospital Cemetery site and enhance the site as a public amenity and to maintain, repair, restore, preserve, improve, beautify and reconstruct the fabric of the Chapel at the former Mendip Hospital Cemetery site as a place of historical or architectural merit and to advance public education in the history of the Mendip Hospital, the Chapel and the Cemetery”.
Dates of open days are available on the web site and you can keep up to date with events via their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/mendiphospitalcemetery/
