A VILLAGE church which has only five burial spaces left in its graveyard has been given permission to expand it onto neighbouring ground.

Six months ago, the parochial council of Ruardean’s St John the Baptist Church won planning approval to chop down a giant line of conifer trees obscuring the 700-year-old historic view to the castle.

And that paved the way for the application to extend the ancient churchyard which dates back to Norman times.

Forest planners approved the scheme to convert a strip of neighbouring rough grassland measuring 103m by 13m into extra burial ground.

Conservation adviser David Haigh said the plan would “enhance the setting of the church and more distant scheduled monument.”

Historic England had previously backed the plan to axe the conifers, with Inspector of Ancient Monuments, Melanie Barge, saying the Grade II-listed church and castle would have acted as focal points in the community, and as large stone buildings would have “dominated the local communitites, reminding the local population of their allegiance to their lord or to God.”