Investigation into baby ashes

Available for over a year

Two years ago BBC Radio Shropshire had a feeling that there was problem with the way baby deaths were being handled in the county. They had no evidence, no case study, and not much to go on. But anecdotal conversations with people we knew led us to believe there might be a story worth telling. BBC Radio Shropshire’s Nick Southall spent a year probing the possibility that bereaved Shropshire parents were left with no body or ashes following the deaths of their babies. Finally a conversation with someone working in the funeral industry led him to the right question to ask. He formally requested Shropshire Council to supply figures for how many families had ashes returned to them following infant cremations at Emstrey Crematorium in Shrewsbury over the past ten years. The answer came back – only one.