RELATIVES of the Littlemore Hospital patients buried in unmarked graves have called for it to be made easier to visit their final resting place.

There are 545 people buried in consecrated ground formerly owned by Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and now in the hands of Catalyst Housing in Armstrong Road, Littlemore.

In February 2015 Oxford City Council granted the trust planning permission for a 270-home development on a plot of land including the graves.

The consecrated ground itself will not be built on, but relatives have called for the trust to improve access to the site, and for the future developer to incorporate a suitable access route into the new housing estate.

Littlemore parish councillor David Henwood's ancestor Joseph Henwood was buried on the site in 1854 after being incarcerated in what was then known as Littlemore Asylum.

He said: "There are warning notices which say permission is required from the NHS to visit the site.

"People who want to visit the graves of their relatives would find that very difficult.

"A lot of people sent to Littlemore Asylum had what we would now term as mental health problems.

"The bigger picture is our relationship with mental health and wellbeing.

"These people should not be forgotten".

Bodies of patients who died in the asylum were buried in unmarked graves from 1846 until the mid-20th century.

The locations of some bodies can be found using maps made during the Victorian period.

The only existing memorial is a plaque in the nearby St George's development which has become faded.

Mr Henwood called on the trust to fund a better memorial and to examine improving access, as well as expressing his hope the future developer would take into account access to the site.

He said: "Some form of memorial would be nice at the burial site.

"The plaque is so faded it is almost meaningless now because of the weathering."

Oxford resident James Massey's ancestor John Massey is another former patient buried at the site.

John was admitted to the asylum on November 21, 1885 after his wife Annie killed herself.

He was later said to have suffered from "paralysis of the insane" and died on June 11, 1889.

Mr Massey recently went to visit the plot but was shocked at how difficult it was.

He said: "I visited in September for the first time and I had great difficulty getting across the field.

"It resembles a jungle.

"Then I was confronted with the mass of shrubs and trees covering the whole of the burial plots.

"I am so sad and annoyed that this grave site has become overgrown.

"There should at least be a memorial erected."