A BARNSLEY mum cannot mark her daughter's grave with a cross because too many other babies are buried alongside her.

Michelle Louise Taylor was premature lived for just one day in March 1970 and until a few years ago all mum Carole knew was that she was buried in a public plot on the mass grave in Barnsley cemetery.

Passers-by may assume it is just an empty patch of scrub land.

But there are believed to be hundreds of stillborn babies and babies who died shortly after birth buried there.

Carole found out Michelle’s funeral had taken place when the then vicar of St Peter's arrived to berate her because he had been the only one there.

Housebound with depression at the time, she had not been told what was happening to her daughter's body.

Carole, 66, regularly places flowers on the unmarked grave and when she eventually discovered Michelle’s exact resting place she asked if a cross could be put up.

The council refused because the plots contain several bodies.

At Christmas she learned crosses were being placed on the previously unmarked children’s area at Thurnscoe Cemetery and asked again.

However the council says different rules apply because the Thurnscoe graves are privately owned.

There are about 400 plots on the Barnsley site, which is also used for ‘paupers’ funerals. Michelle’s plot contains 13 other babies and two adults.