A MOTHER who discovered her baby is buried in a mass grave along with 59 others has spoken of her tragedy.

June Townson, 58, only learnt of the details of her daughter's final resting place after reading in The Northern Echo that more than 2,000 babies were buried in unmarked graves over several decades in Middlesbrough's Linthorpe Cemetery.

It was common practice - up until the 1980's - for hospitals to carry out burials, placing up to 60 children in plots barely larger than an adult's grave, in the belief they were sparing parents the anguish of paying for a service themselves.

Mrs Townsen, of Leven Street, Middlesbrough, like many other mothers facing similar anguish, was encouraged to forget her dead baby.

Her daughter, whom she called Paula, died on December 30, 1967, after she was left to give birth alone at Parkside Maternity Home, Middlesbrough.

Following the tragedy, Mrs Townson was told to go to an undertaker and pay £6.50 for the burial. But she was unable to afford it and left arrangements to the hospital.

"I was in floods of tears," she said. "I thought they might get in touch at a later date, but they never did."

She recently contacted a local funeral director's and discovered her baby lay in Pauper's Corner in Linthorpe Cemetery.

"We were told it was plot x and we worked out where it was from another marker. It was just so barren. There was no number or anything, I can't believe there are so many babies in one grave."

She now visits the grave regularly and also put flowers on another baby's grave on behalf of a Bishop Auckland mother, who cannot get to the cemetery.

"I still get upset. It's a mother's instinct."

Mrs Townsen, along with husband Edward and their children Chris, 35, Wendy, 32 and Dianne, 30, have now placed a plaque and bronze statue on the grave to remember Paula.

Maureen Gibson, of Care for Bereaved Parents, said: "This is a devastating story. I think she's been let down greatly, as many ladies were in that era."

Middlesbrough Borough Council has drawn up plans as part of a £1.2m Lottery bid for a memorial to the children buried in mass graves.

Updated: 14.50 Wednesday, July 25