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Almost 70 mass unmarked child graves discovered by ITV News investigation into mother and baby homes

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IwantToRetire · 22/08/2025 16:57

Nearly 70 babies are buried in mass unmarked graves after dying in a Salvation Army-run institution for unmarried mothers in Newcastle, an ITV News investigation has discovered.

Hopedene Maternity Home operated between 1950 and 1973 in the Elswick area of the city and has been described by families affected as a "place of cruelty" and "like a prison".

Between 1949 and the mid-1970s, thousands of unmarried women were sent to state and religious institutions across Britain - where infants were taken from their mothers for adoption simply because they were born outside of wedlock.

Others died through poor care. Our year-long investigation into this scandal has already exposed allegations that sick or premature children were left to die as they weren’t deemed "desirable" for adoption.

Last year, we revealed nearly 200 infants who died at eight mother and baby homes are buried in mass plots in ten different cemeteries across England.

https://www.itv.com/news/2025-08-21/itv-news-investigation-discovers-almost-70-mass-unmarked-baby-graves

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lcakethereforeIam · 23/08/2025 23:08

Many of these mothers would have been little more than children themselves, possibly abused children.

I read a book years ago, the People of the Abyss by Jack London. His experience of being 'homeless' in London. He was pretty scathing about the help the Salvation Army offered to the destitute. They earned their handouts by enduring hours of prayer and preaching. Leaving them little time to do anything else to try to improve their situation. Although this was just after the turn of the century and the Sally Army must have become a little more compassionate in the intervening decades.

Original poster
IwantToRetire · 23/08/2025 17:04

Nugg · 23/08/2025 05:04

I feel so fortunate that my own mother was born into a GOOD unmarried mothers home in Yorkshire and my grandmother met a lovely man who was keen to adopt her and give her the best life

Thanks for sharing.

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Original poster
IwantToRetire · 23/08/2025 17:03

Tallisker · 23/08/2025 09:31

And as ever, the men who cause the pregnancies get away scot free. No stigma for unmarried fathers 😡

Yes, of course.

And in a strange way talking about the terrible circumstances so many women did and still do find themselves, but only in terms of their suffering, does off course mean men aren't publicly shamed.

Nor the institutions made to face up to their part in maintaining this anti woman sentiment.

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Tallisker · 23/08/2025 09:31

And as ever, the men who cause the pregnancies get away scot free. No stigma for unmarried fathers 😡

Nugg · 23/08/2025 05:04

I feel so fortunate that my own mother was born into a GOOD unmarried mothers home in Yorkshire and my grandmother met a lovely man who was keen to adopt her and give her the best life

Mum4MrA · 23/08/2025 04:46

Neonatal care for sick or premature newborns was in its infancy when I was at med school in the early 90s. Surfactant, pre-birth steroids, UV therapy for neonatal jaundice, and fetal medicine have had a huge impact on survival of babies. I’m not condoning the mass graves or the appalling way unmarried mothers and their babies were treated but I remember the stigma attached to them.

cariadlet · 23/08/2025 03:56

So sad. Like others, I've been aware for some time of how badly young mothers and their babies were treated in Ireland up until the very recent past but hadn't realised that many of the same things were happening in England too.

This stood out for me: "Others died through poor care. Our year-long investigation into this scandal has already exposed allegations that sick or premature children were left to die as they weren’t deemed "desirable" for adoption.
Last year, we revealed nearly 200 infants who died at eight mother and baby homes are buried in mass plots in ten different cemeteries across England."

Original poster
IwantToRetire · 23/08/2025 02:47

I did say up thread that mass graves were not uncommon.

But this is about women already pushed to the edge of society, and with the implication that more babies died than would be expected in normal circumstances.

And then not even a plaque.

And also some women who were told their baby had died only to find out years later it had been stolen and sent to some outpost of British colonial life.

And it was in one of those episodes of a tv series about tracing lost relatives, that a woman who thought she had arranged for her son to be looked after whilst looking for a new job and home after the father of the child disappeared, came to fetch him and they just said he had been adopted.

I dont think these Salvation Army homes were quite as harsh as the Magdalene Laundries, but the women were certainly made to feel they had no worth or rights.

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TempestTost · 23/08/2025 02:12

myplace · 22/08/2025 18:46

Mid 80s parents weren’t consulted about disposal of remains.

Practices around death used to be much more practical. There were many people, especially babies, who died, and not much money to bury them. Poor adults also were often buried in the same kinds of graves.

ArabellaScott · 22/08/2025 22:05

Oh, god, I thought this was Tuam. Another one. Unconscionable.

myplace · 22/08/2025 18:46

Mid 80s parents weren’t consulted about disposal of remains.

Almost 70 mass unmarked child graves discovered by ITV News investigation into mother and baby homes
IAmNotASheep · 22/08/2025 17:41

There was no financial support for women in those days
Families threw women out or at the least refused support and put them in these homes

If you had a baby and were unmarried getting work was impossible either because no one would employ you or there was no one to look after your baby

I have a relative that we recently found out about born in one of these institutions in London.

In terms of unmarked graves if a baby wasn’t baptised they would be buried in unconsecrated ground with others. If there was no family money for burial they would be buried with others or in groups and generally unmarked. It’s extremely unkind of course but that’s how it was done in those days

Im so pleased many now are being given the respect they deserve

myplace · 22/08/2025 17:37

A friend was adopted from such a place. Her mum was really traumatised by her experiences.

However, mass unmarked graves aren't unknown. We need to judge by the standards of the time and examine those standards, rather than the tragic incidences themselves.

It is hard to imagine how recent dignified care for stillborn or miscarried babies became expected.
It’s one of those barbaric hangovers that surprise you.

pontefractals · 22/08/2025 17:30

An old family friend was born in a mother and baby home n England shortly after WW2 but was adopted. Years later, researching his history, he found out that the remains of multiple babies had been discovered in a pit in the grounds. He was haunted by his past (I think he always felt that his adoptive family were more interested in being seen to do good than in actually adopting a child) and eventually drank himself to death, and I know that the knowledge that he was "one of the lucky ones" weighed heavily on him.

Original poster
IwantToRetire · 22/08/2025 17:14

I think what is worse is that for so long (probably not just the UK) unmarried mothers were really badly treated and shamed.

And only some of this came to light after the book got published about all the children stolen from their mothers and sent to Australia, Africa and Canada, often by "christian" organisation.

Britain is perhaps the only country in the world to have exported vast numbers of its children. An estimated 150,000 children were sent over a 350-year period to Virginia, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and what was then Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe.

Australia was the main destination in the final wave between 1945 and 1974.

There were twin purposes - to ease the population of orphanages in the UK and to boost the population of the colonies.

But the shameful institutional decision not to even give the babies that dies proper burials is also horrifying.

Although mass graves with no names was standard practice in the UK for "paupers well into the 20th century.

But for the mothers of the babies so cruel.

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deadpan · 22/08/2025 17:05

I had no idea this went on in England, we've obviously seen it Ireland way too much over the years. It doesn't bare thinking about the suffering of the women and babies.

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