DOZENS of babies were buried in an unmarked and "simple" grave by a Christian care home in Winchester, an investigation has revealed.

A total of 36 infants who were born to mothers housed at the Winchester Diocesan Maternity Home were interred at Magdalen Hill Cemetery to the east of the city.

Some of them were stillborn, while the others all died at a very young age, ranging from one year to just a few hours old.

The news comes after ITV News published an investigation revealing several similar cases across Britain, all involving church-run homes.

Ropewalk House, North Walls, on the site of the Diocesan Maternity Home, which replaced the Winchester Refuge for Penitent Women (Image: Contributed) Burials were often carried out in secret, and without the knowledge of families.

A Freedom of Information request made to Winchester City Council reveals the names of the babies buried in Winchester, as well as the two mothers (aged 17 and 32) buried near them, they too in unmarked plots.

The first baby in the care of the Winchester Diocesan Maternity Home to be buried this way died in 1921, while the last died in 1957.

The response to the FOI response by the council says: "With regards to your request above, the first burial at Magdalen Hill Cemetery was March 1916, so we have no records previous to this date. I have found registered 36 named babies, and they are all buried in a simple grave unmarked and found 2 mothers who died at the above address both in unmarked graves."

It is unclear where this "simple grave unmarked" is in the cemetery.

Between 1949 and the mid-1970s, an estimated 200,000 women were sent away to mother and baby homes run by churches and the state – where infants were taken from their mothers or died through poor care.

Dr Michael Lambert is a historian of the welfare state at Lancaster University and has spent years investigating these institutions.

He told ITV News that unmarried mothers and their children were treated like "second class citizens".

“Once babies were no longer seen as desirable for adoption, they were treated sub-standardly and weren’t given the modern medical care which a ‘legitimate child’ at this time would have had,” he said.

Dr Lambert said the true number of mass unmarked graves from this period was likely to be much higher. ITV News obtained records connected to eight homes –there were more than 150 operating across England for decades.

In the decades after World War Two, being pregnant outside of wedlock was the ultimate taboo. Mothers faced shame and stigma, and were pressured into putting their children up for adoption.