Peterborough family want relative’s grave moved after church continues to bag-up and bin items left on graves

A Peterborough family are considering moving a relative’s grave after items left on his stone were removed by the church.

Bob Atkinson passed away from pancreatic cancer, aged 69, last year, and has a grave at Holy Trinity Church, in Orton Longueville.

His family now want to relocate his grave to a different churchyard after flowers and other ornaments left on his stone in his memory were bagged-up and thrown away by the church – which claims that the items removed are not permitted under rules it has to follow.

Bob’s widow, Pauline Atkinson, 69, was left “deeply upset” after finding a plastic carrier bag containing things she had laid for her late husband left on his gravestone on the day of what would have been the couple’s 50th wedding anniversary earlier this month.

"Mum was in tears,” Chris Atkinson, 48, who grew up in Orton Longueville, but now lives in Hampton Hargate, said.

"Dad passed away in June last year and unfortunately my parents didn’t get to their 50th wedding anniversary. Mum went first thing in the morning to see dad, pay her respects and lay flowers – but there was another bag left on the grave with a note to say ‘if anything is left again it will be permanently removed’.

"Mum was mortified and put them in a box in the boot of her car. Since then we’ve been discussing what we can do to move dad’s grave.”

Although Chris said he “wouldn’t want anyone else to suffer” like his family, Holy Trinity Church has been regularly removing items from family’s graves.

“It’s an awful representation of the church, which is supposed to be a loving and caring community,” Chris said.

"There are bags all over people’s graves. What broke my heart was the gravestone of a 10-week-old baby boy with a plaque of his name that had been removed, bagged-up and left on the gravestone. It moved me to tears how they could treat the family of a child who didn’t have a chance in the world like that.

“Their overzealous approach and interpretation of implementing the churchyard laws seems callous and cold. I know that there are a lot of other people who have loved ones buried there that feel the same.

Holy Trinity Church’s Reverend Imogen Falvey said that the only items permitted under the Church of England’s rules are “one lot of fresh flowers until they die”.

"I have a set of rules and I have to make sure those rules are followed,” she said.

“They are not my rules – they are legal requirements. We have to have rules so that it’s fair for everybody.

"It’s not to be inhumane – it’s to be appropriate as this is a holy space connected to the church.

"Our faith as Christians is that death is not the end. This isn’t the place that they are anymore and therefore putting lots of possessions and items on a grave space is not the purpose of a churchyard.

"We started this process in February, so I think we have been incredibly patient and generous with people. We’ve put their items in bags so they can take their items away as it is their property and not ours.”