‘This doesn’t end here’: honouring the babies who were ‘treated like landfill’ and buried in mass graves
A memorial service and candlelight vigil were held in Royton to honour nearly 300 babies buried in unmarked mass graves between the 1950s and late 1980s. Many parents were unaware of their children's burial locations until recently. The event highlighted the need for greater transparency and a national database to help relatives locate lost loved ones. Activists and bereaved families are calling for further investigations and memorials, as similar practices may have occurred across the UK.
Decades of Grief Pour Out at Memorial for 300 Babies in Unmarked Mass Grave
Tears flowed freely at St Paul’s Church in Royton on Sunday as families finally memorialized nearly 300 babies buried in a mass grave between the 1950s and late 1980s, victims of a horrific practice that saw stillborn children and infants who died shortly after birth taken from their parents and buried in unmarked plots without consent.
The church service and subsequent candlelight vigil at Royton cemetery marked the first time many families could properly honor their lost children. One woman attended to support her grandmother, whose sister was buried in the plot. “This is really meaningful to her,” she said of her unwell grandmother. “So we’re here today to support her.”
Marilyn Spence traveled from Hollinwood to represent her mother, who suffered a stillbirth in 1955 and died never knowing where her son was buried. “They just took the baby away - she never even got to hold him - and said they’d give him a Christian burial somewhere. Obviously we now know that wasn’t true,” Spence said. She recently discovered the child lies in another communal plot in Hollinwood with 23 others. “It’s just lovely. They’ve never had anything. I just get so emotional for my mum’s sake.”
The memorial comes as investigations reveal the practice extended far beyond Royton. Gina Jacobs, 79, spent 53 years searching for her baby son before finding him in a mass grave at Landican cemetery in the Wirral. She now helps other families locate their children. “Like landfill for babies,” she said of similar plots containing hundreds of infants. “It’s horrific. They did absolutely nothing wrong, except for being born sleeping. Yet they’re treated like murderers.”
A recent LBC investigation found 89,000 babies buried in unmarked plots across the UK, with data from only 45 of 314 councils surveyed. Event organizer Maggie Hurley believes the true figure could reach one million and called for government intervention. “This is a social injustice on a scale I never imagined,” she said, advocating for a national database to help families find their lost children.
The memorial service concluded with relatives placing candles, flowers, balloons and teddy bears around the three-by-three meter plot, though discoveries continue. Another mass grave has been identified elsewhere in the same cemetery, while Marilyn Spence described her brother’s resting place in Hollinwood as merely a “mud patch” and hopes to organize a similar memorial there.
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