Sheep introduced to keep grass short in churchyard blamed for grave damage

A church graveyard near Reading looks like it has been “vandalised” after sheep were brought in to keep the grass cut. Families who have relatives buried in the graveyard at Holy Trinity Church in the aptly-named village of Grazeley are furious the animals are being left to roam over graves and destroy mementoes which are left. Church leaders say there is no money to pay for gardeners and grazing sheep is a traditional and cheap way of keeping the grass short.



Nicola Millard from Woodley, discovered the sheep when she went to visit the graves of her grandparents. She said: “The area they have put the sheep is where people still tend the graves. There is a little turnstile I go in rather than the main gates and I arrived to see four of them stood on my nan’s grave. I was so heartbroken.” Ms Millard said the sheep have broken headstones and chewed plant pots, baskets and flowers which have been left on graves and there is also the issue of sheep droppings.



Ms Millard’s mother Jane, 62, also from Woodley, said: “It’s carnage, everything is destroyed. There are 10 sheep and when one runs they all run. There’s headstones broken, pots trampled on, it looks like somebody has gone in and vandalised it. It’s very disrespectful. My dad fought in the war and I don’t see the fun of these sheep trampling all over him. I can’t get my head round it at all.”



Assistant priest the Reverend Chris Leslie said the church had been left with little option but to bring in the sheep. He said: “With the current financial situation the church is having to look carefully at where its money goes and the money isn’t there to pay people to mow the graveyards. The only method of cutting it which doesn’t cost money is sheep. It’s a traditional method of maintaining the grass in graveyards and you will find many in the Oxford Diocese where sheep are grazing.”