Hundreds of bodies, mostly of babies or young children, have been found in a mass grave in Oldham.
The mass burial pit in Royton Cemetery in the northern outskirts of Oldham, which measures just four metres across, contains over 300 corpses - and was found by a resident looking to track down her stillborn brothers.
Independent local councillors Maggie Hurley and Jade Hughes were contacted by the resident, and revealed the results of their "profound" and "heartbreaking" investigation online.
The pair drew attention to what was once the common practice of taking stillborn babies and burying them without their families' consultation or knowledge - and have warned that their discovery could be the tip of the iceberg on more mass graves across the Oldham area and beyond.
The councillors launched their investigation after a resident brought her concerns to them
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Mass graves in Britain tend to carry associations of centuries-old plagues - but the investigation in Royton has revealed stillborn infants were being buried as recently as the 1960s, and potentially even later.
The councillors said that the resident came to one of them "with an issue she had been chasing for years".
They said: "Her brothers were born in 1962; sadly, one was stillborn, and the other died at only five hours old. Her mother and father never saw or held them.
"They were taken away, and sadly, that was the case... Back then, stillborn babies were taken by hospital staff to be 'buried with a nice person'."
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The councillors uncovered burial sites in Royton - one of which contained 303 bodies in one plot
ROYTON INDEPENDENTS
The councillors detailed how their constituent had started her search after reading a news story about a woman in the Wirral whose stillborn son had suffered a similar fate in 1969, and after a 53-year search, had found his body in a mass grave with 63 other deceased infants.
Their own search uncovered the burial site in Royton - where 303 bodies were found in one plot, but only 147 names were listed online, leaving a further 156 missing - comprising 128 non-stillborn infants, and 29 adults.
The pair said: "It's a stark injustice that parents were denied the fundamental right to bury their babies, a right that should be inherent and unquestionable."
Among the 303 were the resident's two brothers - and the discovery left her "in tears" and "feeling a profound sense of loss and injustice", the councillors said.
After consulting with staff at nearby Hollinwood Cemetery, who identified the hundreds buried in Royton, the councillors discovered the mass grave was not the only one of its kind.
"There was one in the Catholic area, one in the Non-Conformist area, and one in the Church of England section. How many babies are lying in our cemetery, still to this day unknown to relatives?" the pair asked.
Councillors have filed a motion with Oldham Council to take the matter further
Now, the councillors have urged action, adding that they understood the practice happened "throughout the country".
In their statement, the independent councillors said they have filed a motion calling on Oldham Council to:
- Recognise the loss and suffering in the past and present by publicly marking out each mass grave and erecting a memorial to all our babies born asleep and the many who lay with them forgotten.
- That records of mass graves in our cemeteries be collated and recorded entirely online so that relatives can, at last, see the final resting place of their babies, children and relatives.
- To implement and publicise a clear procedure that provides those seeking their loved ones a professional, sensitive and transparent process.
- Provide relatives with a dedicated point of contact who can support and assist people in this traumatic time.