Post by UKarchaeology on Jan 29, 2016 17:15:36 GMT
The bodies of about 800 children aged under six have been unearthed by archaeologists ahead of the construction of a road in Lancashire.
They were among 1,967 bodies exhumed at St Peter's Burial Ground, which opened in 1821 in Blackburn.
The large number of children found is being put down to a lack of good sanitation and medicines leading to a high mortality rate.
Many of them would have died from infections, the archaeologists believe.
Bodies were exhumed from about 30% of the burial ground, which was in "intense use" up to the 1860s, a spokeswoman for Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council said.
Full story: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-35408967