'The more I think about it, the more angry I get.'
Tears of grief, joy, anger. Decades of pent up emotion came to the surface at an event to memorialise the almost 300 babies buried in a mass grave in Royton .
On Sunday some were able to finally honour their loved ones with a real service at St Paul’s, afterwards setting candles and flowers onto the approximately three by three metre plot in Royton cemetery.One attendee was supporting her grandmother, whose sister was buried in the plot. Her grandmother, who didn’t wish to be named, is unwell.Marilyn Spence, a Hollinwood resident, described how her mother’s stillbirth in 1955 had hung over the family for as long her mum lived.
Asked what the service meant to her, Marilyn teared up. “It’s just lovely. They’ve never had anything. I just get so emotional for my mum’s sake.”While some felt the event brought them a real moment of acknowledgement - others couldn’t help but feel angry that people were left in the dark for so long.
“This is a social injustice on a scale I never imagined,” she said. “In some ways we’ve been lucky here in Royton. All the relatives of the babies in this mass grave now know they’re there. “Relatives need to be able to find their babies,” Hurley said, adding that if local authorities weren’t able or willing to foot the bill - then the government would need to step in.But even locally in Oldham, there is much left to do. At the candlelight vigil, one relative claimed to have discovered another mass grave on the other side of the cemetery - indicating that there may be more in the borough left to uncover.
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