The Three Counties Asylum cemetery is located away from St Luke's chapel and away from the main building. It is located at the western end of Eliot Way. The cemetery covers a very large area, although in some parts you would not know it is there as not many gravestones or markers remain visible.

The cemetery consecration took place in 1864 by the Bishop of Ely. A very elaborate ceremony took place with many of the dignitaries connected with the asylum present. Both patients and staff were buried in the cemetery, and it does seem that staff graves were in general separate from patient's graves.

By 1897 over 2000 people were interred within the cemetery and the area was declared full and additional burial ground space was needed. This was found on a disused piece of land at the rear of the now full cemetery. After permission was granted by the lunacy commissioners and the diocese offices, the new ground was consecrated - although the ceremony was much less elaborate as the original.

Only a few headstones still stand on the original cemetery, and there were many wooden markers to be found under the rows of bushes that run the length of the now grassed field which was the second cemetery. The graves of nurses, the coachman and the bailiff can still be seen today as these have large headstones which were an expensive item in their day. Private patients and those with the means to pay for a decent and respectable burial were placed in the cemetery along with many pauper lunatics.

Many of these paupers had no means of paying for a headstone or respectful burial. Their funerals were paid for by the poor law unions. When paupers were buried they were given a simple grave marker with a number on it. The Victorian markers were made of cast iron and only had one number on them. 

After many years of neglect the cemetery site was cleared and most of the cast iron markers were scraped. They had been pulled from the ground and scattered around the area. Many of the later wooden markers could still be seen if you looked into the bushes. These markers had up to five numbers on them, suggesting that up to five people were interred in each very deep grave! In 2013 a large modern memorial was built in the cemetery. 

Close up of Thomas Cherry's headstone. Late Coachman for 20 years to the Three Counties Asylum. He died April 8th 1880 Aged 55 years.
Henry Will Brown, for 15 years Bailiff at the asylum, died on 1st October 1906 aged 47. There was a massive court case over this man's death. His widow sued the hospital because Henry died of Typhoid contracted through the water supply.
Victorian grave marker, number 2532.
Wooden grave marker.