A GRIEVING family says Edgworth should be ashamed of its churchyard after they spent nearly an hour fighting through weeds to scatter their mother's ashes.

Annie Mahoney, who died last month aged 80, was born and brought up in Edgworth.

Despite moving to Aberdeen after her wartime marriage and living there until her death, her heart remained in Edgworth and it was one of her dying wishes that her ashes be scattered on her brother's grave at the Methodist Church in Bolton Road. When her daughter and two sons arrived at the church last week from Scotland with several relatives from Darwen and Bolton, they were horrified by what they saw.

Minister, Rev David Hamflett admits the churchyard is an eyesore but says the church is helpless because its members are too elderly to do the job and it lacks cash to pay someone else.

Mrs Mahoney's daughter Maureen Mahoney said: "The graveyard was covered in weeds waist high and we had to pull them out to find our way through.

"We had elderly relatives with us, including the widow of my uncle, Jim Mitton, whose grave it was. It was very upsetting. It took us half an hour to find the the actual grave and then we had to scrape it clean and remove the weeds."

She says they were also appalled to see several of the graves in a "state of collapse".

The family went ahead with the scattering of ashes even though Ms Mahoney says she felt reluctant to leave her mum in such an uncared for spot.

She visited Edgworth many times as a child and always remembered the graveyard being well kept but says its current state lets down the village.

"Edgworth has always been a nice village but the residents now have a lot to answer for," said Ms Mahoney.

Rev Hamflett said: "If the family had contacted the church to say they wanted to scatter ashes we would have made every effort to ensure the grave was clear.

"This has been a headache for the church for many years. We recognise that the graveyard is overgrown and we don't want it to be an eyesore but we are a small church with mainly elderly members and little money to spend.

"We are looking at ways to tackle the problem but it is not as though you can just move a lawnmower around as the graves are close together. It would be great if we could get people on community service to help, or set up some kind of working party."