'I carry a hole in my soul': Nearly 200 babies from church-run homes buried in unmarked graves

Records obtained by ITV News reveal 197 babies are buried in mass burial grounds across England, ITV News Social Affairs Correspondent Sarah Corker reports

An investigation by ITV News has found that nearly 200 babies are buried in unmarked graves across England, amid allegations of neglect and poor treatment at church run homes for unmarried mothers in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.

Burials were often carried out in secret, and without the knowledge of families.

Between 1949 and the mid-1970s, an estimated 200,000 women were sent away to mother and baby homes run by churches and the state - where infants were taken from their mothers or died through poor care.

Burial records obtained by ITV News through a series of Freedom of Information requests have revealed that 197 babies, who died at eight of these homes, are buried in mass burial grounds at least ten different cemeteries across the England, from Newcastle to Hampshire.

Earlier this year our investigation found that 45 babies who has died at a Church of England home in Cumbria are buried in a mass unmarked grave in the town’s cemetery.

Some families only found out the truth after watching an ITV News report. Since then, we have a found a disturbing pattern of behaviour at other homes across England.

Our evidence shows burials connected to at least four other Church of England run homes, including 36 unmarked graves of babies born at the Winchester Diocesan Maternity Home, 11 graves from St Saviour’s in Northampton, 21 from Putnam House in Aylesbury and 2 connected to Sunnedon House Maternity Home in Brentwood.

Some 24 infants died at a Salvation Army home in Newcastle called Hopedene, and are buried in unmarked graves in four different cemeteries.

Records for two Catholic Church-run homes show 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 isolated and cut off from the rest of the health and social care system".

Dr Michael Lambert, a historian of the welfare state at Lancaster University, spoke to ITV News about the treatment of unmarried mothers and their children

Dr Michael Lambert is a historian of the welfare state at Lancaster University and has spent years investigating these institutions.

He told ITV News that unmarried mothers and their children were treated like "second class citizens".

“Once babies were no longer seen as desirable for adoption, they were treated sub-standardly and weren’t given the modern medical care which a ‘legitimate child’ at this time would have had,” he said.

Dr Lambert said the true number of mass unmarked graves from this period was likely to be much higher. ITV News obtained records connected to eight homes - there were more than 150 operating across England for decades.

In the decades after World War Two, being pregnant outside of wedlock was the ultimate taboo. Mothers faced shame and stigma, and were pressured into putting their children up for adoption.

Margaret Moore was born at St Pelagia’s maternity home in the 1950s, which was run by Catholic nuns from the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary.

She described our findings as "harrowing" and recounted her own "bleak" start to life.

“I think those girls were looked on as the dregs of society and their offspring, very much the same,” she said.

“On my medical records one of the things that really hurt me was that they said ‘it can hear’. I was considered coloured, that was the phrase then, biracial now.

"So my race was commented on and I think in the homes there was a tier system and I wasn't considered ‘correct for adoption’.”

Margaret believes she wasn’t considered for adoption because of her race, and spent the first three years of her life in an orphanage, and then foster care.

“I say I carry a hole in my soul with it. You're marked. You carry that stigma, you carry it for the rest of your life and the repercussions of it,” she said.

Margaret Moore spoke to ITV News Social Affairs Correspondent Sarah Corker about the 'harrowing' findings

In 1962, June Thoburn was a childcare officer in Oxford City, and later in London. She was not directly involved in the running of mother and baby homes but did place children for adoption.

Part of her role was to try to support young, single mothers but she said they often had very few options.

“The choices were still very limited. There was no proper income for them, and worst of all there was no housing… they were often ostracised by their families. They were pretty powerless,” she said.

There was no right to council accommodation until 1977 Housing (Homeless Persons) Act. Now an Emeritus Professor in the School of Social Work at the University of East Anglia, Ms Thoburn described the homes as "very punitive" and "cruel places".

The children who could not be adopted would be moved to residential nurseries and later children’s homes, or foster care.

Former childcare officer June Thoburn told ITV News that single mothers in that period had 'limited choices'

The campaign group Movement for an Adoption Apology has written to the Prime Minister Keir Starmer asking him to "do the right thing and issue a formal apology to all affected", and to "ensure that everyone who has been traumatised receives the help they need" - whether that be therapy, counselling or improved post-adoption support.

The Welsh and Scottish governments have formally apologised for their part in this scandal, but so far the UK government has refused to do the same.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “These latest findings underscore just how abhorrent the practice was, and that it should never have taken place.

“We are actively looking to learn from the approach of the devolved nations, and are exploring what more can be done to support those impacted.”

In response to our investigation a spokesperson for the Church of England said: “We are deeply saddened by any pain and distress experienced by those connected to mother and baby homes including any affiliated with the Church of England.

“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 spokesperson for the Salvation Army, which ran one of the homes featured in our investigation, said: “We are deeply saddened to hear of the traumatic experiences that some people endured in the care of The Salvation Army decades ago.

"We acknowledge that there are some who did not always receive the support they needed and deserved, for which we are deeply sorry.

“We would like to use the new information that has been shared with us about children’s burials to try and match that against records in our archives to see if we can uncover any further crucial information.”

A spokesperson for the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary, the order which ran the two former Catholic mother and baby homes featured in our report, said: “Our thoughts are with those who lives has been affected by their experiences in these homes.

“Clearly there are people who are understandably looking for answers, and we have spent time since we were first contacted about this to try and uncover what information we can.

“However, this has been challenging given that the homes closed around 60 years ago. The Sisters who worked there have all passed away, and any records have moved to other organisations. If there is any way we can continue to help, then our door is always open.”

If you have any information relevant to this story, contact @SarahCorkerNews and the ITV News Social Affairs team by emailing your experience to investigations@itv.com

Resources for those affected by the issues in this report

Movement for an Adoption Apology has links to resources offering information and insight into historic forced and coerced adoption in the UK and around the globe.

For those affected, support is available through Safe Spaces, an independent service offering confidential support to survivors of Church-related abuse on 0300 303 1056 or on their website.