'I will dig up mum's ashes'

Her strong stance has arisen after another row with St Mary's officials about leaving personal items on headstones.

She said: "I am so angry about this situation that I will dig up my mother's ashes with my own hands if I have to.

"I want somewhere I can go and pay my respects to my mother and have the area looking nice."

She buried Mrs Woods (64) in the church's gardens of remembrance in 2004.

Mrs Poole and her three children adorned Mrs Woods's plot with trinkets and silk flowers.

They marked the 65th birthday of Mrs Woods in August 2005 by leaving silk flowers and handwritten poems on her site.

They were dismayed to find a few weeks later the items had been removed in a clean-up of the churchyard.

This was in spite of a compromise they believed had been achieved with the church authorities about a threatened clean-up.

The situation settled down again after the Observer reported the situation that September.

Mrs Poole (40), of Westloats Gardens, and her children resumed placing silk flowers, trinkets and cards on the plot of Mrs Woods.

But a visit to the garden of remembrance last Thursdayrevived all the old painful memories. The plaque on Mrs Woods's plot stood alone. All the personal items of remembrance had been swept away.

Mrs Poole describes the action as stealing. "If I remove something from a grave that does not belong to me, I class this as stealing. A total lack of respect is shown to me and all the other families affected.

"How I wish I had laid my mum's ashes elsewhere. Maybe she would then be given the respect she deserves.

"We put her into the garden of remembrance because that's where her mum and dad were buried. It seemed the obvious place. Nobody told me about rules and regulations for leaving things there," she said.

She condemned the appearance of the garden of remembrance, without any personal mementoes around the headstones, as looking like a barren piece of land.

She blamed a new notice put up in the garden of remembrance which states items like silk flowers and trinkets are banned for the sudden clearance.

Her conversations with the church's vicar, Father Timothy Peskett, saw him deny giving instructions for the removal.

Fr Timothy, who has been appointed since the previous row, said: "I have no idea who would have removed the articles. It is sad and regrettable but incidents like this do happen from time to time in churchyards.

"We do respectfully ask people not to put trinkets, silk flowers and glass containers on graves because they can be easily removed, causing a lot of distress.

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This is also for safety reasons because we have grass cutters using heavy industrial equipment in the churchyard.'

He pointed out a notice in the church grounds stated silk flowers were not allowed. A full list of the regulations regarding the items which could be placed on burial plots was on show in the church porch.