UK Woman Uncovers Brothers’ Remains In ‘Landfill For Babies’ Mass Grave

The discovery reveals a past practice of burying stillborn children without informing parents.

A shocking discovery has been made in a British cemetery. In Royton Cemetery in Oldham, a mass grave containing more than 300 bodies-mostly those of stillborn babies and small children-has been discovered, according to The Metro. The remains of 145 stillborn infants, 128 babies and young children, and 29 adults were discovered within the 12-by-12-foot burial. These people’s remains have been buried at the unmarked burial site for a long time.

The person who discovered them was a woman who had spent decades trying to find the graves of her twin brothers, who had passed away in 1962. While the other twin died soon after birth, the first twin was stillborn. After searching, the woman found the mass burial.

“I live near the cemetery, and I used to walk through it with my mother all the time, and we had no idea they were buried there,” she told the MailOnline. “I get upset speaking about it because my mother died and is buried in the same cemetery, but she never knew they were there.”

According to The Metro, up until the 1980s, parents of stillborn children were kept in the dark by doctors over the fate of their lost children-many were taken away without the parents ever knowing where they were buried, typically in mass graves. Bereaved parents were instead told their child was buried alongside a ‘nice person’ that same day.

“My brothers were only a year older, and I have one younger brother, but I saw growing up how the grief affected my parents without any support,” Sarah said.

The boys weren’t on any official records, so Sarah spent years in a ‘merry-go-round’ of genealogy companies, council officials, and coroners to find them.