A MEMORIAL garden for parents who have experienced the loss of a stillborn or miscarried baby has been established in Sedgefield village.

Midwife Marie Richards, who works at Bishop Auckland General Hospital, came up with the idea when approached by a bereaved mother.

She said: "A lady who lost a child 50 years ago approached me one day and asked me where the local children's burial site was.

"It was just a bit of grass really and I thought we could do something with it, so I set it up."

With the help of Sedgefield Town Council, gifts from the public and a stone provided by the Northern Granite Company, the area was transformed.

The site in the town's cemetery has been tidied up, there is a seat, children's flowers and a plaque bearing the inscription "For all our babies briefly known, dearly loved, greatly missed".

Mrs Richards said: "It's not just for recently bereaved mums and dads, but for the people who lost children years ago.

"It is somewhere for them to sit and remember them.