The names and stories of more than 500 staff and patients from Leavesden Hospital have been uncovered.

Leavesden Hospital History Association volunteers have spent eight months compiling a register of names after surveying the former hospital's cemetery in East Lane, Leavesden earlier this year.

The land in East Lane used to be part of the Leavesden Hospital from 1906 to 1995.

The Leavesden Hospital Chapel of the Good Shepherd cemetery was consecrated in 1906 as the original cemetery on the south side of East Lane was full and the hospital needed additional space.

Full body burials were conducted at the cemetery from 1906 to 1960, and they were then replaced with ashes underneath marker stones.

Watford Observer:

Gravestones in the cemetery. Credit: Stephen Danzig

At the start of January volunteers were shocked to uncover around 510 stones but now the association has said it has recorded more than 570 names of people who lived and worked at the hospital.

Martin Brooks founder of the association said: "This has been a personal project off mine since I was a park ranger back in 2008. It has been one of the most personally rewarding projects I have ever been involved in.

"Most of the records associated with the cemetery have been lost over time. We now have the only record I know of, which details who is at rest there.

"Finding and recording the names was only one part of the project.

"The stories of the former patients and staff of the hospital, which had to be told, would not have been possible without the hundreds of volunteer hours spent by Gill Durell who researched their personal stories."

"Thanks to the work of everyone involved, I can now help people possibly locate long lost relatives who may be at rest in the cemetery. We have returned it to the place of respect, beauty and reflection that it once was."

You can view the list online http://www.leavesdenhospital.org/.