Last year, an ITV News investigation found there are hundreds of mass unmarked graves of babies in cemeteries across England, from Newcastle to Hampshire.
By ITV News Social Affairs Correspondent Sarah Corker and Senior Producer Lottie Kilraine
- This report contains strong language and distressing content
Survivors of Britain’s forced adoption scandal have gathered in Cumbria to remember children who died in church run institutions and were buried in mass unmarked graves.
It comes after an ITV News investigation last year discovered that 45 babies had died at a former Church of England home for unmarried mothers and were buried in secret in a mass unmarked grave in Kendal.
The Bishop of Carlisle Rev Rob Saner-Haigh unveiled a memorial garden at Parkside Cemetery and described St Monica’s mother and baby home as a place of “pain, rejection and heartache”.
Speaking at the ceremony held on Friday, he said: “This is a place for those who have lost their children and loved ones. [St Monica’s] should have been sanctuary … but for many it became a place of pain, rejection and heartache. They were not treated well by the church and I am truly sorry for that.”
If you or anyone you know has been affected by this issue or has a story to share, you can get in touch by emailing: socialaffairs@itv.com
St Monica’s in Kendal was run by the Diocese of Carlisle from 1917 until its closure in 1970.
Stephen Hindley, who has been campaigning for justice for nearly two decades for his wife Judith and her son, also called Stephen, said the memorial has given them “the dignity they so richly deserve”.
In post-war Britain an estimated 250,000 women were sent away to institutions run by religious organisations and the state where they were pressured and coerced to put their babies up for adoption.
Other infants died due to mistreatment or poor care.
Mr Hindley told ITV News: “Judith was 17 at the time and she told me she was forced to clean floors and kitchens while heavily pregnant. They were being punished.”
Stephen was born in 1964 with disabilities, but he was “cruelly denied proper medical care and died 11 weeks later”, Mr Hindley said.
Judith never recovered from that trauma and in 2006 took her own life close to the cemetery where her baby is buried.
Last year, an ITV News investigation found there are hundreds of mass unmarked graves of babies in cemeteries across England, from Newcastle to Hampshire.
Burial records obtained by ITV News through a series of Freedom of Information Requests found graves connected to eight institutions for unmarried mothers.
Records show that 67 infants died at a Salvation Army home in Newcastle, called Hopedene, and are buried in unmarked graves in four different cemeteries.
The majority of the graves were connected to Church of England affiliated institutions.
There are 11 unmarked graves from St Saviour’s in Northampton, 21 from Putnam House in Aylesbury, and two connected to Sunnedon House Maternity Home in Brentwood, Essex.
There are 36 unmarked graves of babies born at the Winchester Diocesan Maternity Home. Following our report, the Diocese issued this appeal for information.
Records for two Catholic church-run homes showed there are 21 unmarked graves of babies who died at the Sacred Heart Maternity Home in Kendal.
At St Pelagia’s, in Highgate, North London, 37 infants died. They are buried at Islington and St Pancras Cemetery in unmarked plots.
The records don’t say how the babies died, but experts have told ITV News that infant mortality rates were high within these institutions because “mothers and babies were treated like second class citizens and were cut off from the rest of the health and social care system”.
Bob and Carole Chubb only discovered the ‘heartbreaking truth’ of what happened to Bob’s baby sister Faith after they watched a report on ITV News
Other families, like Bob and Carole Chubb, only found out the truth about their loved ones after watching an ITV News report.
Mr Chubb’s sister Faith is among the 45 babies at Parkside Cemetery. His mother Norah Everard was in her 80s and dying from cancer when she first told him about the trauma she’d endured decades earlier as a teenager in 1941.
Pregnant and unmarried, Norah, who was from Barrow-in-Furness, was sent away to St Monica’s in Kendal where she was later told that her baby daughter Faith had been stillborn.
Burial records seen by ITV News suggest that Norah was lied to and show that Faith had lived for 12 hours and was buried without the family’s knowledge in a mass grave in Kendal.
Mr Chubb said Friday’s memorial was an “important recognition that Faith existed”.
“I’d like to think my mother would be proud of what we’ve done,” he added. “She carried this secret with her for all those years.”
Cumbria Police confirmed it had investigated allegations of historic abuse and said it “would welcome any new information which would assist officers … following concerns raised in relation to these premises”.
Earlier this month a public event in Cornwall condemned the treatment of victims of the forced adoption scandal, as campaigners called for an official government apology for the state’s role in the “cruel” practice.
This clip contains strong language. Lyn Rodden, 88, recalls the moment her baby son was taken away from her and the ‘cruel’ treatment she endured at Rosemundy mother and baby home
A plaque recognising their suffering was unveiled in the village of St Agnes by Lyn Rodden who was 19 when she was sent to Rosemundy mother and baby home.
Ms Rodden, now 88, described the home as a “slave camp” where they were “forced to do laundry for the staff and villagers” and scrub the flag stones in the building whilst heavily pregnant.
“It’s the cruelest place I’ve ever been, prison would have better than that, and it’s lived with my all my life,” she told ITV News.
In 1956 she gave birth to her son Mark but was pressured to give him up for adoption. For 50 years, all she had to remember him by was “a blurry photo the size of a postage stamp”, until Mark tracked her down as an adult.
“All these politicians should be ashamed of themselves,” she said in reference to the government’s refusal to issue a formal apology to survivors.”
Dr Phil Frampton, who was born in Rosemundy mother and baby home, is calling on the government to apologise to ‘help survivors begin to heal’
Dr Phil Frampton, who organised the event in Cornwall and was born at the Rosemundy home in 1953, said the plaque offered survivors the “opportunity to develop a sense of healing”.
Dr Frampton spent his childhood in care, describing the mistreatment and racism he faced growing up as “cruel”.
He told ITV News: “My social services files record someone as saying ‘there’s no chance of having a mixed race child adopted or fostered in the south of England’ … It was a racial issue.”
The unveiling of the plaque in Cornwall was attended by mothers and adult adoptees, some whom had travelled across the country to mark the occasion.
Ann Andic, whose son was forcibly adopted in London, described how the service and acknowledgement of the suffering as a “huge relief”.
“It’s like a weight has been lifted, because I know now that I’m not alone, despite what I’ve been told,” she told ITV News.
“I had to stop myself crying, I felt tears rolling down my face uncontrollably, because it’s being acknowledged.
“It’s beginning to be known that it happened to so many of us. We were sworn to secrecy, to not even tell anyone we had given birth.”
Ann Andic, who travelled from London to Cornwall for the ceremony acknowledging the suffering of survivors of mother and baby homes, said ‘a weight has been lifted’
The Church of England has previously said that “we are deeply saddened by any pain and distress experienced by those connected to mother and baby homes.”
“That some children who died in these homes were buried in unmarked graves is a tragedy that raises deeply painful questions for families and communities.”
A Government spokesperson said: “This abhorrent practice should never have taken place, and our deepest sympathies are with all those affected. We take this issue extremely seriously and continue to engage with those impacted to provide support.”
If you have been affected by the issues in this report, please visit the links for help and support:
- Movement for Adoption Apology – provides information on forced and coerced adoption in the UK and around the globe
- PAC UK – Specialist therapy, advice, support, counselling and training for all affected by adoption and permanency
- The Diocese of Winchester has issued an appeal for information, find out more on their website here
- Safe Spaces – an independent service offering confidential support to survivors of Church-related abuse on 0300 303 1056 or on their website
- Samaritans is an organisation offering confidential support for people experiencing feelings of distress or despair. Phone 116 123 (a free 24-hour helpline)
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