AN 89-year-old great- grandmother says she was “shocked” to learn she would have to remove potted plants and a small tree from the graves of her husband and three sons after “years without a problem”.

Mum-of-seven Phyllis Page says she was given a month to clear the two graves during her weekly visit to Alvington churchyard on Sunday morning, June 30.

Husband Bill Davies is buried there, alongside son Robert who was accidentally killed in 1972 aged 19 while working in the Severn Tunnel, son Kenny who died of cancer 12 years ago, and twin baby boy Anthony who passed away aged six months in 1951.

Her parents George and Ethel also lie in the St Andrew’s churchyard, which Phyllis visits each week to pay her respects and tend the graves.

But she says she was given a a sheet of paper entitled ‘Churchyard regulations’ and asked to clear the graves of potted plants and the four-foot high tree.

“The churchwarden was very apologetic, but handed me the regulations,” said Phyllis. “Well why now, after all this time?

“I keep it tidy, and I don’t see what harm we’re doing, we’re not hurting anyone.

“It’s how we’ve had the graves for years and it’s how we remember our loved ones.

“I was born in Alvington, christened in the church, and even learnt to dance in the memorial hall next door, where my dad was the caretaker. And all my family, including my parents and three of my children are buried here.

“The churchyard holds a special place in our hearts. Now I’ve got to saw the tree down and take the potted flowers and plants off.

“Well there are lots of people with pots on their loved ones’ graves, in Alvington and other churchyards like Lydney and Woolaston.”

Phyllis, who lives in Lydney and loves gardening and tending her fish pond, added: “The churchwarden gave me the paper and said I’m very sorry. She said she didn’t want to upset me, but the graves needed clearing.”

One grave contains her husband Bill, who died in 2002, and baby son Anthony.

And the other, where she has planted a tree, contains her parents and her sons Robert and Kenneth.

Phyllis revealed that at Christmas she puts tinsel on the tree.

“To us, it means they can still have Christmas – they are are not forgotten,” she says.

“Robert would be 68 now, but he died at 19 in an accident in the Severn Tunnel when he was laying electric cables.

“His workmates supplied a memorial stone, and it’s very important for me to come here and remember my boys.

“The pots aren’t doing any harm – indeed on the one grave they’re surrounded by piles of swept up leaves which are unsightly.

“I go there every Sunday, when the weather’s OK, without fail,” adds Phyllis, whose surviving children are Stephen, Peter, Geoffrey and Ann

The Diocese of Glou- cester’s ‘Churchyard regulations’ handed to Phyllis say “no trees or shrubs may be planted without the agreement of the relevant parish church council”, which is permitted to “remove unsightly flowers.”

Bulbs and small annual plants also cannot be planted in a container on a grave.

The church were approached by the Review and discussed the matter, but declined to be quoted.