Family in shock at mess on mother's grave

“I Am The Daughter Of Mr & Mrs Broomfield with Whom you are all referring to the damaged coffin. We Spent over £2000.00 pounds on my mothers coffin to make sure we had a solid wooden one to protect her remains for as long as possible, there were letters and personal effects placed inside with my mother when she was buried. The Coffin was Made of Solids american mahongany which would of took 100 years to break down and disintergrate. On the day of my fathers funeral i was absolutely distraught to be told by my brother that there was a hole into my mothers coffin and you could see inside which would now be water logged totally, when wood swells it acts like a barrell of beer it does not leak because of the swelling now there is a hole which will let it all in. I can appreciate it isn't a very nice job grave digging and can be hard to judge sometimes the depth in which you need to dig but careful consideration for the dead should be applied at all times even if it takes you 10minutes longer, i appreciate it was raining alot but rushing the job makes for carelessness like in this matter. I Hope this never happens to any of your loved ones or someone you care very deeply about as it is extremely upsetting enough buring ones mother and then 18mths later her father who died infront of me and whom i had to preform CPR on him till the ambulance arrived and then on the day of his funeral be told my mothers expensive coffin was wrecked. But I hold no malice to mr Alan price and appreciate that sometimes these things happen and hope it never happens to him or his loved ones. Thankyou for everyones comments good or bad. Kind Regards, THE DAUGHTER”

“I can imagine seeing this can be upsetting for anyone, possibly a letter to the family plots next to the digging would soften the first site of the mound. I dont think anyone is at fault as this is normal practise.

However The Post has been delivering less and less over the years and this is a perfect example of how it gives people voices for very wrong reasons.

We all suffer loss differently but Im sure there are ways of healing the pain by remembering our loved ones as they were and thier wishes.

Sadly Our own needs can often over shadow the path thats been kindly left for ones to move forward.”

“Bristol Evening Post, being such a large newspaper, you should know better about naming people when they have refused to give comment.
Ever heard of the Data Protection Act?!

@darkfyre & MaidenBoy - completely agree with your comments. We are lucky that there are such hard-working kind people out there who dig graves with such grace and such effort, do people realise how hard these grave diggers work?! You need so much stamina and will-power. Not many people could dig graves and see sites that they must see.

@Mikey_Blake - here's an idea, do a days work as a grace digger and then tell the world how easy it is to judge where the next grave is. To judge a job that you do not do is ridiculous. The earth left on another grace is normal practise, where else would you suggest it goes? Once the funeral is complete and the grievers have left the grave is filled and all mess tidied.

I personally think ''Alan Price'' must do a fantastic job being that not many people this day and age would do such a hard job.

My deepest sympathys go to the families who have lost loved ones but this, well quite bluntly is ridiculous.”

“This Makes me laugh..
@ Mikey_Blake.. Have you nothing better to do? Your implied accuracy bears no forethought or actual knowledge into what constitutes grave digging, and you are unfortunatley painting a very uninformed picture of what you 'believe' to be true.
You talk of accuracy? the "Digger men" that you so prolifically speak of work to plans, they know what depth to cut into, and do so accordingly. How with No prior knowledge of previous interment depths do you propse that an accurate measurement of that be aquired? Taking into of course that your "A thin metal pole" is not an accurate way of doing this, especially if you had any local knowledge, whereby Whitchurch is in a limestone belt, and is notoriously hard to dig. Unfortunatley poles stop on more than just coffins..i.e, stones, roots..? so although in principality the notion of your methodology is well.. nice, It remains almost completely irrelevant. My suggestion. You do the next one, shaving off 20p piece slivers untill you find the previous one... I can guarantee that you wont be so happy with your method of accurate grave digging once you start, and nor will it prevent you from finding the next coffin.

The earth on an adjacent grave is nothing more that normal practice, and may I suggest that the actions of those that have deemed it otherwise, are clearly trying to remain untarnished.

As for the "reporter's" handling, whoever you are, Darkfyre has a valid point, are you allowed to release names of people that refuse to comment, which is a constitutionally protected right?

If no explicit permissions have been given, surely liability comes into question?

This is a shame this, Alot of people in this line of work do a sterling effort, many times a day, with the ultimate discretion so that during times of great sadness, people do not need to have to deal with what is undoubtedly the hardest part of saying goodbye.

Anyone that jumps into a grave that has been dug, and starts poking around, and then complaining on top surely should be the subject of such sensationalist reporting instead??

These are just my humble opinions, No detrimental effect, either malicious or otherwise intended, and of course, I sympathise deeply for those that have lost.”

“@darkfyre. My thoughts exactly.

@Mikey_Blake. Are you a professional grave digger? Is the reporter a professional grave digger? No I think not therefore how do you have any right in commenting on how a job should be done. There is not many people who would be able to do this job as discretley as the professionals do. The statement from the reporter is in fact how it is normally done and all mess is cleaned after. How do you propose graves are dug otherwise? It is impossible to Jude how deep a previous coffin as been dug.

I think unless you have the will power and stamina to do such a job your comments are kept to yourself.”

“If the coffin had been buried a few years longer it would have completely disintergrated, wether a digger was used or not, as for piling up the earth next to the grave this is standard practice it happens everywhere and and mess is put right after the funeral.”

“@darkfyre
I didn't suggest the Digger Driver makes cuts at a 20p thickness. I just implied they can be that accurate (in the last few scrapes) before the coffin-lid.
The professionals use a thin metal pole to push down at intervals when they are digging, to locate hard objects below, especially if they know there is a coffin beneath.
Obviously this amateur Digger Driver didn't have the sense to do that so he only stopped when he started mashing up the coffin.
That's why he need to be replaced, or go on a course which teaches him how to dig properly :-)”

“Is this reporter so devoid of work and interesting leads that they have to stoop to publishing such drivel? This is nothing but sensationalist gossip that should not have even prompted an initial visit from the reporter.

Also, "trusted source" yet nameless reporter, why do you feel the need to print the name of a person who has refused to comment? Usually if someone says "no comment" it means "I want no part in this" not "you can print what you want and include my name" - for that you require explicit permission, did you have this? I expect not!

Mikey_Blake: Do you suggest that every grave digger carefully shave earth from graves in layers the thickness of a 20p coin until they reach the previous coffin, which will likely be so covered in mud as to be indistinguishable from the actual earth unless it is cleaned? Ridiculous idea considering that there's no way to determine how deep the previous coffin has been buried, not to mention the amount of time it would take to do something like that.

Utterly poor form to single out someone in this way, especially when no wrong has been done! The Post should be ashamed of having such poor judgement on this story and has gone down even further in my estimations.”

“Sad face, chin down, eyes partially closed. i'll give it 7/10 for sad look attempt as well.Strange it wasent mentioned that he has no arms.”

“sad face chap on the left, 7/10 for sadness, bonus point for chin down and looking over top of glasses”