Gravestone ends up in front garden

Margaret Storey has moved her husband and daughter's headstone to her front garden after it was banished by a church. Son Andrew says he will leave flowers and messages there, rather than at the graveyard where his departed relatives lie.

The family had placed a polished black granite stone in St Peter's Church graveyard, Leckhampton.

A 'book' style memorial inscribed with gold lettering, marked the double grave of Margaret's husband Brian and daughter Janis Frostick.



But after a series of communications from the Church Road staff, in which the Storeys were told the grave marker was 'the wrong colour' 'the wrong material' and 'too shiny', a church court hearing ruled the stone was 'not in keeping' with the graveyard's atmosphere and ordered that it be removed.

Brian's son Andrew Storey, a builder, removed it himself and put it in the front garden of his and Janis's mother Margaret in Leckhampton.

He said: "It's done and we have a replacement stone ordered but we don't know when it will be in place. I'm eager it's there soon because it's where my father and sister lie, but I am disgusted with the way we were treated and I can't believe it's happened. As a result of this, I am never going to set foot on the grounds of St Peter's Church again."

Photo from here.