Man’s body buried in overcrowded churchyard while vicar was away

A family ‘illegally’ buried their late father in an overcrowded church graveyard while the vicar was away in a space between two plots. 

Jim Haxby had insisted he should be interred next to his late brother in St Oswald’s Churchyard at Filey on the East Riding coast. 

He was adamant with relatives that ‘even if he had to be buried upright or left in his box in the grave yard’ he wanted the churchyard to be his last resting place.

However, when he died in the autumn of 2018 it looked as if his dying wishes were going to be thwarted. The family were told that churchyard had been closed to any further funerals and that he could only be buried there if there was a family grave there that was deep enough. Otherwise there was the alternative of him being cremated and his ashes being buried there.

However, when the Rev Nigel Chapman was away on a course for several days, the family went ahead and buried their father despite the lack of plots. 

Upon his return, Rev Chapman discovered Mr Haxby had been ‘slotted in between two graves, that were regarded as a ‘family plot’.

The vicar sought guidance from church authorities and the Archdeacon of East Riding following the unauthorised burial.   

The result was that the Church of England’s Consistory Court was called in. Now Canon Peter Collier QC Chancellor of the Diocese of York in his role as a judge of the court has said in an 8,500 word judgment that if anything similar happened again he would feel obliged to report it to the police with view to prosecution.

He added that he could also not guarantee that a body buried in such circumstances in the future would be allowed to remain in the graveyard.

However, in this case he said that although the burial of Jim Haxby had ‘been buried unlawfully’ in the churchyard and that ‘the unlawful position could not be made lawful’ he would allow the body to remain there.

Jim Haxby’s remains had been illegally interred in the churchyard of St Oswald’s in Filey, East Riding. Church authorities have ruled that while Mr Haxby had been illegally buried, he can remain in his unauthorised grave

The family later apologised for what had happened in a letter to the Church authorities. In their letter, which was included in the judgment, Mr Haxby’s son James and daughter Mandy said: ‘We are led to believe that our local undertaker and vicar are in trouble for the burial of our late father, “James (Jim) Haxby”.

‘We would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused but as a family we always knew that our Dad would be buried in Filey Cemetery next to his brother. It was always close to Dad’s heart and that was where he was going.

‘He always said that was his place and it was sorted with a vicar years ago. All his late family are buried there and that was where he would go to be with them. We had no question that he would go anywhere else.

‘We are truly sorry if this has caused any problems’.