A JUDGE has turned down a plea to ‘evict’ the remains of an elderly couple from a grave at Middlewich Cemetery, which they were buried in without the permission of their nephew who owns it.

Bob and Dot Ollier, died aged 85 and 87 in 2011 and 2015 respectively, and their ashes were buried in a wooden casket in a family plot at Middlewich Cemetery in 2016.

However, their nephew, Michael John Alcock, 68, who inherited the plot after his father died in 1987, hoped that when his time comes he would be buried in the plot and re-united in death with his late twin brother.

Now though, he says that after the burial in the plot of Mr and Mrs Ollier there will be no room left for his remains to be buried in the plot.

As a result he, and his sister, Diane Jane Morris, 59, turned to the Church of England’s Consistory Court and sought an order for exhumation of their aunt and uncle.

Permission for exhumation from consecrated ground has to be given by the court. But it is only rarely given on the basis of the Church’s philosophy that a last resting place should be just that unless there are exceptional circumstances to agree to exhumation. The majority of applications are refused.

And in this case, Judge David Turner QC and Chancellor of the Diocese of Chester hardened his heart to the plea by Mr Alcock and his sister and refused to order exhumation.

The plot was originally purchased in 1924 by Mrs Ollier’s brother and Michael Alcock’s father, George, for just £1 10shillings.

Since then various members of the family have been buried there – probably upwards of at least six - including babies. One of those babies was the twin brother of Michael Alcock and the judge said that Mr Alcock was anxious that when his time comes he would be buried with his twin.

The judge in his judgment described the situation as ‘a regrettable family dispute’. Mr and Mrs Ollier’s son, Robert, 63, and his wife, Shirley, had challenged the move by their cousins, to have their parents remains unearthed and moved elsewhere.

In doing so they had said, that although permission for the burial had not been obtained from Mr Alcock, his parents had ‘consistently’ wished to be buried in the plot. They had also argued that there would still be sufficient room in the plot for Mr Alcock’s remains.

However, Mr Alcock argued that there would not be room and that his long time wish to be buried with his twin would be thwarted.

The judge accepted that Mr Alcock ‘indisputably’ had an exclusive right of burial and had ‘for a very long time held a perfectly understandable wish to be buried with his twin.’

On the other hand, he said Mr and Mrs Ollier had been buried in the plot for some two and a half years and he had to decide whether the Church philosophy that a burial in consecrated ground should be permanent unless there were exceptional circumstances was overcome by Mr Alcock’s legal rights and his own wish to be buried there. He added that he was proceeding on the basis that the plot was now ‘effectively full’.

He said the burial of Mr and Mrs Ollier had been a breach of the exclusive right of burial Mr Allcock and his sister held over the plot and that this, coupled with Mr Alcock’s wish to be buried there were capable of amounting to ‘exceptional circumstances’.

However, he said that after looking at all the circumstances, and although he knew Mr Alcock and his sister would be disappointed, he had decided to ‘uphold the permanence of Robert and Doris Ollier’s place of burial in this particular plot’ and refuse the plea for their exhumation.