Son travels 300-miles to spread mother's ashes in Northampton...but contractors dig hole in the wrong place

A grieving son had to carry out a 300-mile round trip to lay his mother's ashes to rest in Northampton - only to find the graveyard contractors had dug the hole in the wrong place.
A man who asked for his mother's ashes to be buried with his father was left fuming when the council contractors dug a hole in the wrong patch of ground.A man who asked for his mother's ashes to be buried with his father was left fuming when the council contractors dug a hole in the wrong patch of ground.
A man who asked for his mother's ashes to be buried with his father was left fuming when the council contractors dug a hole in the wrong patch of ground.

When Nancy Burrows passed away aged 89 in 2016, her dying wish was to have her remains buried with her husband John, at Kingsthorpe cemetery.

But her eldest son Russell says a mix-up by the contractor that looks after cemeteries in Northampton, Amey, has caused distress for the family.

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His father is buried in a double plot next to his brother Graham, who passed away in 1996.

But rather than digging a hole for Nancy's ashes in the same plot as John's - Amey workers dug a hole in a gap between the two graves.

Russell, who is a former homelessness worker from Hastings, was assured the hole was in the right place before driving up with his mother's ashes last Thursday.

But after finding the hole in the centre of the two graves, the 68-year-old says he was forced to fill it in himself.

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"I knew they hadn't done it properly so I put a shovel in the car and drove up from Hastings," he said.

"When I got there all they had done is put planks of ill-fitting wood over the hole.

"I was worried it was going to fill with water - so I just filled it myself."

"It was a 300-mile round trip."

Mr Burrows now wants to wait until the borough council's environmental services contract is handed over from Amey to the firm Veolia in June, before he attempts to spread the ashes again.

A Northampton Borough Council spokesperson said: “An officer from the council has been in touch with Mr Burrows to clarify the situation and we apologise for any upset caused.”

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