AN 80-year-old widower was devastated to find his wife and baby daughter’s graves hidden by grass in an overgrown cemetery.

At first, grieving Leonard Gregson could not see his wife’s headstone in Blackburn’s New Row Cemetery because of four-foot high grass and thorns covering it.

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Reverend John Howard-Norman has now issued a plea for help tending to the Heys Lane graveyard to prevent other relatives feeling distressed like Lammack resident, Mr Gregson.

The former British Rail worker, said: “The cemetery is a disgrace. I struggled to find the grave and when I did I spent nearly two hours clearing it. The grass and thorns were three and four foot high. I nearly did my back in trying to sort that grave out.

“It’s heartbreaking. I was nearly in tears when I finished. At 80 I shouldn’t have to do this.”

Mr Gregson lost his wife Joyce, 84, in September and went to visit her grave in New Row Cemetery on Thursday when he discovered how unkempt the graveyard had become.

The pensioner, who also has a five-day-old daughter, Jane-Marie, buried at New Row has called on action to be taken and said he would never have buried his wife there if he knew what state it would be left in.

Mr Gregson, of Columbia Way, said: “I only lost my wife 10 months ago. She has a headstone and we have a daughter buried there as well as my wife’s father and mother. I am the only one who can do any work with the grave. I have no family.

“I would never have put her in that cemetery if I’d have known this was going to happen. I would have buried her in Pleasington.

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“There are thousands of people buried in that cemetery.

“The part where my wife is buried there is a lot of people, who died in the 1950s. Many of their relatives will still be alive and even if they go to the cemetery to look after their loved ones graves they’ll be faced with the same situation as me.

“The only people who seem to do any work in there are these young people who are doing community service.”

Rev Howard-Norman, who is for the West Pennine methodist circuit, said he had received complaints about the condition of the graveyard.

He apologised and said the issue was down to a lack of finances.

Rev Howard-Norman said: “We we hoping that we would have had some assistance with the grass early in the growing season but we were let down.

“The problem we have is the sheer size of the cemetery. The rate the grass grows if we did a cut now by the time we got from one end of the cemetery to the other we would have to start again.

“Our intention is to cut the grass at the end of the growing season.

“I understand the concerns of the relatives. I totally agree it feels neglected and as if nobody cares. We do care and I am very concerned about the church’s reputation. It looks as though we’re not bothered but our hands are tied by limited resources.”

Rev Howard-Norman said the associated chapel had been on the market for some time but there were issues with ecological surveys and the issue of who would have responsibility for the upkeep of the graveyards.

He hopes residents or a community group would form a voluntary ‘friends group’ to clear and maintain the graveyard, as is the case with Blackburn Old Cemetery, in Whalley New Road.

Rev Howard-Norman added: “The solution I would love to see is for a friends group to be established by the community who could be involved with some care and development of that area.

“With a large amount of volunteers we could break it up in to manageable sections.”