Forced adoption scandal: cumbria memorial for 45 babies that were unmarked in mass grave

By ITV News Social Affairs Correspondent Sarah Corker and Senior Producer Lottie Kilraine

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Survivors of the UK forced adoption The scandal gathered in Cumbria to remember children who died in church institutions and were buried in unmarked mass graves.

It comes after one ITV messages in the past year discovered that 45 babies had died in a former house of the church of England for unmarried mothers and had been buried secretly in an undisturbed mass grave in Kendal.

The Bishop of Carlisle Rev. Rob Saner-Haigh presented a memorial garden on the parkside conspiracy and described St. Monica's mother and baby house as a place of “pain, rejection and heartache”.

At the ceremony on Friday, he said: “This is a place for those who have lost their children and relatives. [St Monica’s] Should have been a refuge … but for many it became a place of pain, rejection and heartache. They were not treated well by the church, and I'm really sorry. “

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St. Monica in Kendal led the Carlisle diocese from 1917 until his closure in 1970.

Stephen Hindley, who has been fighting for justice for his wife Judith and his son, also called Stephen for almost two decades, said that the monument “gave them the dignity that she deserves so abundantly”.

In post -war Britain, an estimated 250,000 women were sent to institutions that were led by religious organizations and the state in which they were put under pressure and forced Put your babies for adoption.

Other infants died of ill -treatment or poor care.

Mr. Hindley said to ITV News: “Judith was 17 years old at the time and she told me that she was forced to clean floors and kitchens during the pregnant pregnancy. They were punished.”

Stephen was born with disabilities in 1964, but “cruel the right medical care was cruelly refused and died 11 weeks later,” said Hindley.

Judith never recovered from this trauma and took life near the cemetery in 2006, on which her baby is buried.

Last year ITV messages examinations There are hundreds of non -marked graves from babies in cemeteries across England, from Newcastle to Hampshire.

Funeral records received by ITV News by a number of information woman inquiries found graves, which were associated with eight institutions for unmarried mothers.

Records show that 67 infants died in a house of the Salvation Army in Newcastle called Hopedene and are buried in non -marked graves in four different cemeteries.

The majority of the graves were associated with affiliated institutions of the Church of England.

In Northampton, 21 from Putnam House in Aylesbury, there are 11 non -marked graves from St. Saviour's and two with the maternity house of the Sunedon House in Brentwood.

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There are 36 non -marked graves of babies born in the Winchester Diocesan Enumity Home. According to our report, the diocese published this Insert information.

Records for two Catholic church houses showed that there are 21 non -marked graves of babies who died in Kendal in the maternity house of the holy heart.

In St. Pelagia in Highgate, Nordlondon, 37 infants died. They are buried in non -marked diagrams in the Islington and St. Pancras cemetery.

The documents do not say how the babies died, but experts have informed ITV News The child mortality rates were high Within these institutions because “mothers and babies such as citizens of the second class were treated and cut off by the rest of the health and social care system”.

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Bob and Carole Chubb only discovered the “heartbreaking truth” of what Bob's little sister belief had happened after seeing a report on ITV messages

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Other families, such as Bob and Carole Chubb, found only the truth about their loved ones, after that Watch an ITV news report.

Mr. Chubb's faith is one of the 45 babies on the Parkside Cemetery. His mother Norah Everard was in the 80s and died of cancer when she first told him about the trauma that she had grounded as a teenager in 1941 for decades.

Norah, who was pregnant and unmarried, was sent from Barrow-in furness to St. Monica in Kendal, where she was later told that her little daughter was born dead.

The funeral documents seen by ITV News suggest that Norah has been lied to and show that this was shown Faith had lived for 12 hours And was buried in a mass grave in Kendal without the knowledge of the family.

Mr. Chubb said the monument on Friday was an “important recognition that faith existed”.

“I would like to think that my mother would be proud of what we did,” he added. “She has carried this secret with her for all the years.”

Cumbria's police confirmed that she had examined allegations of historical abuse and said that she would “welcome all new information to help the officials … after concerns about these premises”.

At the beginning of this month, a public event in Cornwall condemned the treatment of victims of the forced adoption scandal when activists asked for an official apology from the government for the role of the state in the “cruel” practice.

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This clip contains a strong language. The 88 -year -old Lyn Rodden remembers the moment when her little son was taken away by her and the “cruel” treatment she endured at home in Rosemundy and baby

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A badge that recognized her suffering was unveiled in the village of St. Agnes by Lyn Rodden, who was 19 years old when she was sent home to Rosemundy's mother and baby.

Ms. Rodden, now 88, described the house as a “slave camp” in which they were “forced to wash laundry for the employees and villagers” and scrub the flag stones in the building while they are very pregnant.

“It is the cruelest place I have ever been to, the prison would have better than that, and it lived with my life all my life,” she said ITV News.

In 1956 she gave birth to her son Mark, but was put under pressure to give him adoption. For 50 years she only had to remember him when “a blurred photo of the size of a postage stamp” until Mark felt it as an adult.

“All of these politicians should be ashamed of themselves,” she said in relation to the government's refusal to give survivors a formal apology. “

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Dr. Phil Frampton, who was born in Rosemundy Mother and Baby Home, asks the government to help with the survivor to heal “.

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Dr. Phil Frampton, who organized the event in Cornwall and was born in the Rosemundy house in 1953, said the badge offered the survivors the opportunity to “develop a feeling of healing”.

Dr. Francton spent his childhood in nursing and described the abuse and racism with which he grew up as “cruel”.

He said ITV News: “My social benefits film someone who says,” there is no chance that a mixed child in southern England adopted or encouraged a mixed child “. It was a racial problem.”

The unveiling of the badge in Cornwall was visited by mothers and adults adopted, some of which were traveled through the country to mark the occasion.

Ann Andic, whose son was violently adopted in London, described how the service and recognition of suffering as a “great relief”.

“It is as if a weight has been lifted because I now know that I am not alone, despite what was said to me,” she said ITV News.

“I had to stop crying, I felt tears rolled over my face uncontrollably because it was recognized.

“It starts to be known that it happened so many of us. We were sworn to the confidentiality in order not to say anyone we had born.”

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Ann Andic, who traveled from London to Cornwall to recognize the ceremony, in which the suffering of survivors of mother and baby houses was recognized, said: “A weight was lifted.”

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The Church of England previously said that “we are deeply sad about pain and need that have experienced from those who have been connected to mother and baby houses.”

“The fact that some children who died in these houses were buried in non -marked graves is a tragedy that raises deeply painful questions for families and communities.”

A government spokesman said: “This hideous practice should never have taken place, and our deepest sympathies are with everyone affected. We take this problem extremely seriously and continue to deal with those who are affected to offer support.”

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If you are affected by the problems in this report, please visit the links to get help and support:

• Sorry for adoption – – Offers information about forced and compulsive adoption in Great Britain and all over the world

• PAC UK – Fach therapy, advice, support, advice and training for all those affected by adoption and durability

• The Diocese of Winchester has given an appeal for information procedures and has experienced more about their experiences Website here

• Safe rooms – an independent service that offers the survivors of church abuse on 0300 303 1056 or on their website confidential support

• Samaritan is an organization that offers confidential support for people who experience feelings of need or despair. Telephone 116 123 (a free 24-hour helpline)

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