Babies buried in mass graves will finally be treated with the dignity they deserve
Oldham council is creating memorial sites to honor nearly 300 stillborn and early-deceased babies found in a mass grave in Royton, addressing past practices where such infants were buried in unmarked communal graves. The memorials will include remembrance plinths and benches, and the council has launched a support hotline and suspended fees for death certificates related to these cases.
Almost 300 babies buried in unmarked mass graves in Royton will finally receive proper memorials as Oldham council announces seven remembrance sites across the borough.
The council will install plinths and benches at each cemetery location after discovering that stillborn babies and infants who died shortly after birth were packed into cardboard coffins and buried in communal graves without their parents’ knowledge. The practice, which continued until the late 1980s, saw grieving families told their babies would rest alongside “a nice person” in adult graves.
Royton resident Amanda spent decades searching for her twin brothers before locating them in the mass grave. “They would have walked through Royton Cemetery so many times never knowing that their babies were there,” the 62-year-old told LBC radio, her voice cracking with emotion. “It was a shock - but also a relief.”
Anne and Peter Ryan endured 55 years of uncertainty about their daughter Joyce, who lived for just two days. Their baby lies in another communal grave at Greenacres. “At the end of day it’s your baby, your little girl,” Anne said. “It doesn’t matter if she’d been stillborn or if she lived, she was a human being.”
The Ryans emphasized the importance of having somewhere to “pay your respects, have a little word, grieve.” Following confidential discussions with affected families in September, the council agreed to erect memorial stones inscribed with a “poignant verse” to honor “the little children who never got to grow.”
The council has established a support hotline at 0161 770 7777 (option 2) and will waive fees for death certificates requested for those buried in unmarked communal graves, with refunds available for charges incurred within the past year through the Registrars service.
Oldham’s action follows revelations that this mass grave represents just one of thousands across England, with Freedom of Information data showing more than 89,000 babies buried in communal graves nationwide.
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