A mass grave of babies' bodies has been discovered just yards away from where more than 250 tragic infants were found in another unmarked burial site. The new site was found at Royton Cemetery in Oldham, Greater Manchester, where in September it emerged there were mass graves holding hundreds of bodies.
The first grave was found holding the bodies of 145 babies, 128 children, and 29 adults along the cemetery's south-eastern wall. It isn't yet clear how many babies' bodies are in the second grave, which is located along the northern wall behind the chapel building.
A candlelit vigil was held on Tuesday evening and was attended by the families affected. Oldham Council said this grave, like others, will be marked with permanent memorials. The graves were created as part of a common practice that saw stillborn babies taken from their mothers, who were told they would be buried with a "nice person" in an adult grave. Instead, they were placed in boxes and buried in mass unmarked graves.
The first grave contains children who died days, weeks, months and years after birth, as well as stillborns. There were also adults as old as 74. Sands, a stillbirth and neonatal death charity, explained families of babies or those dying shortly after birth were not consulted about funeral arrangements before the mid-1980s.
