Latest news with #unmarriedmothers
BBC News
23-05-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Memorial in Kendal for babies of unwed mothers at St Monica's Maternity Home
A memorial for dozens of babies born to unmarried mothers, who were badly treated at a home with "Dickensian" conditions, has been children, thought to be in an unmarked grave, were born to teenagers and young women at St Monica's Maternity Home in Kendal, Cumbria, which was run by the Diocese of Carlisle from 1918 until the 1970s. The Church of England has apologised for the mistreatment of the mothers. The service at Parkside Road Cemetery was led by the new Bishop of Carlisle, the Right Reverend Rob Saner-Haigh, who said the home should have been a "sanctuary" but was instead a "place of pain, rejection and heartache". Bob Chubb found out when he was 65 that his mother had been at the home, after she told him he was not her first said: "She said she had a stillborn called Faith, but they've since found records that the baby lived for 12 hours."I came and laid some flowers this morning, I just hope my mother would be proud. "Faith was the sister I never knew I had." If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article, you can find details of organisations that can offer support via the BBC Action Line. In 2006, Stephen Hindley's wife Judith took her own life near where her baby son was buried. He believed the "Dickensian" treatment she received at the home in the 1960s, when she was a teenager, led to lifelong trauma and her death. Speaking after the service, he said: "I feel like a weight has been lifted today. "I told Judy in the mortuary that I would fight for her, and I haven't stopped."I've finally done it and I can't believe how emotional it's been." Dr Michael Lambert, of Lancaster University, who carried out research into unmarried mothers' homes, said St Monica's was one of the worst he had come said it was probable that babies died because of a lack of care at the home and it was a "scandal that should have been avoided". An investigation by North West Tonight in 2023 revealed allegations of historical abuse at the the time, a Diocese of Carlisle representative said: "Those working at St Monica's were in positions of trust. "To breach such trust would constitute a terrible dereliction of duty and our heartfelt apologies goes to anyone who has suffered such mistreatment."A purple rose, called Rhapsody in Blue D, was gifted to the memorial garden by Diana was forced to give up her baby for adoption and is a campaigner for Movement for an Adoption Apology (MAA).Bishop Saner-Haigh said: "St Monica's should have been a sanctuary, yet for many it became a place of pain, rejection and heartache, which has reverberated through to today."Babies and mothers were so precious, but were not treated well by people, by the church, by authorities whose responsibility it was to care for them, to treat them with dignity and compassion."I am truly sorry." Follow BBC Cumbria on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Plaque to be 'reminder of the pain of forced adoption'
Victims of forced adoption have gathered in Cornwall for a public event condemning the treatment of unmarried mothers in post-war Britain. They unveiled a plaque at Rosemundy House in St Agnes - formerly a home for unmarried mothers - while calling for a formal "adoption apology" from the government. Dr Phil Frampton, who was born at the Rosemundy Mother and Baby Home in 1953, said: "We want an apology, not only for the mothers but also for their children who suffered." Lyn Rodden, from Camborne, who was one of those forced to give up her baby, said: "It means everything that we've been recognised at last." It is estimated up to 250,000 women in Britain were forced to give up their babies in the decades after World War Two. Campaigners also want "restorative actions" from the government, such as providing counselling and search support for mothers and those forcibly adopted. Dr Frampton, a member of the Rosemundy Commemoration Committee, said he spent years in foster care after he was separated from his mother as a baby. He said: "It's really pleasing to be here today, it's the start of a new chapter in the struggle for an apology for all those unmarried mothers who suffered in the post-war period." Mr Frampton said the day was "part of a day of healing, part of a day of recognising the grief of those mothers..." He added: "This is not something that's just in the past, for a lot of women they lived with this, you hear women today 80, 88 years old, who are still having to live with what happened, and the children live with it, and families live with it." Mr Frampton said it was "important" to be able to give the mothers, children, and families affected by forced adoptions "a sense of relief and release". Another plaque is due to be unveiled by the campaigners in Kendal, Cumbria, on 23 May. In September 1956, 19-year-old Lyn Rodden from Camborne, Cornwall, gave birth to her son at the Rosemundy home. She said she was forced to get on a train and take her son to Bath to be adopted. Ms Rodden said: "For everybody else the parents came here and took them away from here, but I had to get on a train and take my son up to Bath, and leave him in an office. "A woman just came out and said 'name' and 'I'll take the baby' and she took him into the back office, came out and said 'hurry up' she said, 'catch your train' she said, 'and back to St Agnes, you'll be there for another six weeks'. "That was it. I cried all the way home..." Ms Rodden said she was eventually reunited with her son 50 years later when he found her. "[It was] like the final piece of a jigsaw being fitted," she said. She added: "To think that although slavery was abolished in the 1800s, a Dickensian way of life was gone, but not at Rosemundy. "It was still in the past, and that was it really, and it means everything that we've been recognised at last..." The Department for Education has been contacted for comment. More news stories for Cornwall Listen to the latest news for Cornwall Follow BBC Cornwall on X, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@ Call for apology over forced adoptions Forced adoptions to be investigated by Parliament Mothers urged to talk to forced adoptions inquiry 'I'll never get over being forced to give up my baby'
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Plaque to be 'reminder of the pain of forced adoption'
Victims of forced adoption have gathered in Cornwall for a public event condemning the treatment of unmarried mothers in post-war Britain. They unveiled a plaque at Rosemundy House in St Agnes - formerly a home for unmarried mothers - while calling for a formal "adoption apology" from the government. Dr Phil Frampton, who was born at the Rosemundy Mother and Baby Home in 1953, said: "We want an apology, not only for the mothers but also for their children who suffered." Lyn Rodden, from Camborne, who was one of those forced to give up her baby, said: "It means everything that we've been recognised at last." It is estimated up to 250,000 women in Britain were forced to give up their babies in the decades after World War Two. Campaigners also want "restorative actions" from the government, such as providing counselling and search support for mothers and those forcibly adopted. Dr Frampton, a member of the Rosemundy Commemoration Committee, said he spent years in foster care after he was separated from his mother as a baby. He said: "It's really pleasing to be here today, it's the start of a new chapter in the struggle for an apology for all those unmarried mothers who suffered in the post-war period." Mr Frampton said the day was "part of a day of healing, part of a day of recognising the grief of those mothers..." He added: "This is not something that's just in the past, for a lot of women they lived with this, you hear women today 80, 88 years old, who are still having to live with what happened, and the children live with it, and families live with it." Mr Frampton said it was "important" to be able to give the mothers, children, and families affected by forced adoptions "a sense of relief and release". Another plaque is due to be unveiled by the campaigners in Kendal, Cumbria, on 23 May. In September 1956, 19-year-old Lyn Rodden from Camborne, Cornwall, gave birth to her son at the Rosemundy home. She said she was forced to get on a train and take her son to Bath to be adopted. Ms Rodden said: "For everybody else the parents came here and took them away from here, but I had to get on a train and take my son up to Bath, and leave him in an office. "A woman just came out and said 'name' and 'I'll take the baby' and she took him into the back office, came out and said 'hurry up' she said, 'catch your train' she said, 'and back to St Agnes, you'll be there for another six weeks'. "That was it. I cried all the way home..." Ms Rodden said she was eventually reunited with her son 50 years later when he found her. "[It was] like the final piece of a jigsaw being fitted," she said. She added: "To think that although slavery was abolished in the 1800s, a Dickensian way of life was gone, but not at Rosemundy. "It was still in the past, and that was it really, and it means everything that we've been recognised at last..." The Department for Education has been contacted for comment. More news stories for Cornwall Listen to the latest news for Cornwall Follow BBC Cornwall on X, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@ Call for apology over forced adoptions Forced adoptions to be investigated by Parliament Mothers urged to talk to forced adoptions inquiry 'I'll never get over being forced to give up my baby'
BBC News
10-05-2025
- General
- BBC News
St Agnes plaque to be reminder of the pain of forced adoption
Victims of forced adoption have gathered in Cornwall for a public event condemning the treatment of unmarried mothers in post-war unveiled a plaque at Rosemundy House in St Agnes - formerly a home for unmarried mothers - while calling for a formal "adoption apology" from the Labour Phil Frampton, who was born at the Rosemundy Mother and Baby Home in 1953, said: "We want an apology, not only for the mothers but also for their children who suffered."Lyn Rodden, from Camborne, who was one of those forced to give up her baby, said: "It means everything that we've been recognised at last." 'Struggle for an apology' It is estimated up to 250,000 women in Britain were forced to give up their babies in the decades after World War also want "restorative actions" from the government, such as providing counselling and search support for mothers and those forcibly Frampton, a member of the Rosemundy Commemoration Committee, said he spent years in foster care after he was separated from his mother as a said: "It's really pleasing to be here today, it's the start of a new chapter in the struggle for an apology for all those unmarried mothers who suffered in the post-war period." Mr Frampton said the day was "part of a day of healing, part of a day of recognising the grief of those mothers..."He added: "This is not something that's just in the past, for a lot of women they lived with this, you hear women today 80, 88 years old, who are still having to live with what happened, and the children live with it, and families live with it."Mr Frampton said it was "important" to be able to give the mothers, children, and families affected by forced adoptions "a sense of relief and release".Another plaque is due to be unveiled by the campaigners in Kendal, Cumbria, on 23 May. 'Cried all the way home' In September 1956, 19-year-old Lyn Rodden from Camborne, Cornwall, gave birth to her son at the Rosemundy said she was forced to get on a train and take her son to Bath to be Rodden said: "For everybody else the parents came here and took them away from here, but I had to get on a train and take my son up to Bath, and leave him in an office."A woman just came out and said 'name' and 'I'll take the baby' and she took him into the back office, came out and said 'hurry up' she said, 'catch your train' she said, 'and back to St Agnes, you'll be there for another six weeks'."That was it. I cried all the way home..." Ms Rodden said she was eventually reunited with her son 50 years later when he found her."[It was] like the final piece of a jigsaw being fitted," she said. She added: "To think that although slavery was abolished in the 1800s, a Dickensian way of life was gone, but not at Rosemundy."It was still in the past, and that was it really, and it means everything that we've been recognised at last..."
The Guardian
09-05-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Plaque and memorial garden to mark scandal of Britain's forced adoptions
Survivors of forced adoptions and unmarried mothers' homes will gather at the first-ever public commemorations of a national scandal affecting hundreds of thousands of British people. A plaque will be unveiled at noon on Saturday at an open event at Rosemundy, St Agnes, in Cornwall. Meanwhile, in Kendal, Cumbria, on 23 May, a memorial garden will be opened, with attendance by invitation. Women from across the country, adoptees and relatives are expected to attend the events – at the locations of two former unmarried mothers' homes – after years of waiting for a formal UK government apology. There were hundreds of unmarried mothers' homes operating in the UK between the 1940s and the 1980s. Run by the Church of England, Salvation Army and the Catholic church, working alongside statutory bodies, they promised to protect women and girls from stigma and destitution. Instead, many faced cruelty, neglect and lifelong trauma. Women have described being made to work in punitive regimes and were often pressured into handing over their babies to be rehomed with married couples. 'If the government won't apologise, at least they can be a point of healing for people,' Phil Frampton, a campaigner from Manchester, said of the commemorative events, which he said were the beginning of 'a long-overdue national movement'. Diana Defries, from the Movement for an Adoption Apology, said: 'The significance cannot be overstated. It's the first time we can stand in front of the cameras and say, it happened here, it happened to all of these people. It will finally be a very public recognition of this injustice.' Frampton campaigned for the plaque at Rosemundy, where he was born. Facing stigma as the white mother of a mixed-race child in the 1950s, his late mother, Mavis Frampton, was compelled to give him up to the care system and his Nigerian father was removed from the country. Having obtained his own records, Frampton said the system was driven by a desire to keep welfare costs down as well as 'rotten' societal prejudices. Lyn Rodden, from Camborne, faced 'non-stop' pressure to give her baby up at Rosemundy, where she was among teenagers subjected to unpaid labour, even after her waters had broken. 'We were literally slaves to them, it didn't matter what condition we were in. People think that it was only in Ireland and it was never like it over here – it damn well was,' she said. The 88-year-old, reunited with her son in adulthood after years of their lives 'crisscrossing', said the Rosemundy plaque means 'everything … because so many people called me a liar'. In further evidence of the devastating impact of the forced adoptions system, research by Michael Lambert, of Lancaster University, has indicated the use of the lactation-suppressing drug diethylstilbestrol, which has been linked to an increased risk of cancers, in some unmarried mothers' homes, while an ITV investigation has revealed unmarked graves across England contain the bodies of babies who did not survive. Steve Hindley, 79, from Salford, campaigned for the Kendal memorial garden near the former St Monica's home, where his late wife, Judy Hindley, was sent, aged 17, in 1963, before they met. Traumatised Judy took her life in 2006, near Parkside cemetery, Kendal, where babies including her 11-week-old son Stephen were buried in unmarked graves. Stephen had been denied care for hydrocephalus and spina bifida. The Parkside cemetery memorial, Hindley said, would provide 'dignity at last' for the babies. A 2021 parliamentary inquiry found there were 185,000 adoptions involving unmarried mothers in England and Wales between 1949 and 1973 alone, based on 're-registrations' of babies 'born out of wedlock', and that the state was ultimately responsible for the suffering caused by public institutions and employees involved. Scottish and Welsh governments have formally apologised, but the UK government refused the recommendation of a formal apology in 2023, and has not provided one since Keir Starmer took office. Meanwhile, the Church of England has expressed 'great regret', the Catholic church has apologised and the Salvation Army has said it was 'deeply sorry'. A Department for Education spokesperson said: 'This abhorrent practice should never have taken place and our deepest sympathies are with all those affected … we take this issue extremely seriously.'
