Devastated family plead for respect after church builds car park around their relatives’ graves – The Sun

A CAR park was built at a church with two graves smack in the middle.

The gravel was laid around the last resting places of John Yates and Joseph Bullock, who both died in 1940.

Their graves are marked by reflective wooden posts to stop visitors parking on them.

Mr Yates’ family put up a notice begging drivers: “Please respect my grandfather’s grave — do not drive or walk on it — as you can see it has been damaged by cars in the past.”

And one parishioner raged: “If one of my relatives was buried there I would find it highly disrespectful. Surely the graves could have been relocated first.”

Last week, builders converted a grassy bank into the car park to accommodate the increasing number of visitors to St Michael’s Church, in Lichfield, Staffs.

Other graves were relocated in the 1970s but those of Mr Yates and Mr Bullock were kept where they were.

Parishioner John Snelson, 45, said: “The fact that the graves are so old means the church had no choice.

“Before the gravel was laid you had cars parking all over the place and sometimes tyres were on top of graves, which is more upsetting.”

Source: Read Full Article