Hospital patients to get memorial

As reported in last week's Guide, the Prestwich parish church action group applied to the area board for Kickstart funding to enable the project to go ahead.

Members of the area board gave their backing to the scheme on Monday evening and approved the grant for £2,250.

The action group first came up with the idea when they started tackling the overgrown church grounds last year. Volunteers have spent many weekends tidying up rubbish, plants and clearing pathways and as part of their plans they wanted to honour the many former patients of Prestwich Hospital who were buried in the grounds in unmarked graves.

More than 3,000 patients, over the last 150 years, have been buried at St Mary's.

Mr Bill Cottam, from the action group, said: "Many patients of Prestwich Hospital were considered social misfits; they had epilepsy, alcoholism or mental and physical handicaps. A lot came from outside the area and had no relatives locally. So when they died aged 80 or 90, they were buried in an unmarked grave some five deep. The church records show the address 535 Bury New Road, which is the hospital."

The action group has also approached the current owners of the hospital, Bolton, Salford and Trafford Mental Health NHS Trust, to help fund the memorial.

Mr Cottam revealed a sketch of the sandstone headstone, which will be situated at the side of the church.

He said: "We were thinking of an inscription and some kind of rose engraved in the stone. The thorns would symbolise the bad times and the flower would symbolise the good times, because the patients were actually well looked after and the hospital still does good work."

Prestwich Area Board chairman Coun Vic D'Albert said, "Prestwich Hospital and its many patients is part of the history of Prestwich. To create a memorial to remember so many tragic victims is a fitting tribute only Prestwich people could think of. I have no hesitation in supporting this Kickstart application."