A CHURCH minister has appealed for help to tackle out-of-control grass in a churchyard that has grown so high it hides the graves of people buried there.

Rev Christine Jones said the small congregation at New Road Methodist Church, in Blackburn, was no longer able to maintain the churchyard.

Relatives of people buried there said they were “heartbroken” because they could not find their loved ones’ graves as the weeds had grown so high.

Rev Jones said the Probation Service had previously helped out by providing people to tend to the churchyard, in Heys Lane, but this had stopped in recent months.

She said: “We have a small congregation of 15 which doesn’t have the resources, financially or physically, to maintain the graveyard in the condition that we would want to see it kept.

“This is a burial ground and we need to respect the people interred there.

“Any help we could be given or a financial donation would be very welcome.

"It’s not in the condition I would like to see it in, but I recognise there are not the resources at the moment because there are a great deal of demands.”

Anyone willing to clear the weeds would need proper insurance and equipment, she added.

Jean Judge, of Stoneyhurst Avenue, Burnley, said that she was no longer able to find the graves of her mother, grandmother and grandfather who are buried there because the grass was more than five foot high in some places.

The 62-year-old said: “The grass is so deep it’s absolutely disgusting. You just can’t find your relatives’ grave.

“It has always been a mess, but I have never seen it that bad.

“It is just heartbreaking.”