A JUDGE has broken tradition and given permission for a man’s cremated remains to be exhumed and re-buried elsewhere, after a grave digger buried them too close to a public footpath in Sherston.

The ashes of Alan Llewellin were mistakenly planted alongside a public footpath in Holy Cross church yard in the north Wiltshire village.

Concerns were raised that if the planned memorial stone for Mr Llewellin was installed there was a danger the public would walk over it and it could be damaged.

Justin Gau, chancellor of the Diocese of Bristol and a judge of the Church of England’s Consistory Court, gave the go-ahead for the ashes to be moved to another part of the church yard.

Normal Church of England philosophy is that a last resting place must be just that and that once a body or ashes are buried in consecrated ground they must not be moved.

But in granting permission for the move – sought by Mr Llewellin’s daughter, Jayne Henderson – Chancellor Gau said he considered the circumstances in this case were sufficiently exceptional to allow him to side-step the normal procedure.

He said that although Christian doctrine firmly established that a Christian burial was meant to be permanent, there were exceptional circumstances which could pave the way for the Consistory Court to grant permission for exhumation.

He continued: “I accept in the highly unusual circumstances of this case that a genuine mistake was made in the siting of the original space.

“It was a mistake made with the best intentions and no one is at fault here. I am prepared to grant this faculty for the exhumation and re-interment of Mr Llewellin’s ashes.”