THE oldest church in Prestwich has been given a slap on the wrists over the state of its graveyard.

St Mary's in Church Lane has fallen foul of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission after it carried out a spot inspection.

It found the area around 29 First World War and 19 Second World War memorials to be overgrown and sent in one of its own team to cut the long grass around them.

However, the Rev Frank Bibby, vicar of St Mary's, said the church was "doing its best" and part of the problem was that people were not prepared to help keep it tidy.

The commission is responsible for 1.7 million graves in the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa.

A commission spokesman said of St Mary's: "We went in and strimmed the grass down but obviously the grass is going to grow again. Apparently it is not looking too bad now.

"There are 170,000 war graves in the UK spread over about 12,500 churchyards and cemeteries. We do not have the controls that they have on the continent where there are mass sites but we ask that the graves are maintained. "People should be able to get to them so that they serve their purpose as a memorial."

But Mr Bibby, pictured inspecting one of the graves, said the church was doing all it could to try and maintain the graveyard.

He said: "We have a very large churchyard and we are doing our best to keep it in some decent order. We have spent £18,000 on it already this year.

"It's not ideal ground for mowing as it is on a slope because the churchyard was extended in the 1930s and part of it is the clough.

"At the moment we are also in the growing season and once it stops we will be able to put down weedkiller, but then we get into trouble with the conservationists."

He said that the church received about £48 a year from the commission to look after the area around the war graves.

"We always get people making comments about the state of the churchyard but nobody is prepared to come and give us some help. Now it is a big problem which we are aware of and the church council has discussed it," Mr Bibby added.

"We have already put into effect a programme and we have put the work out to contact."

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