An elderly woman from Hereford has won the legal right to exhume her brother-in-law's body from a grave she says is rightfully hers.

Joyce Cload says she was never asked if her brother-in-law, Raymond Preedy, could be buried in the same grave as her late husband at St Martin's Church in Hereford.

The mix-up only came to light in March this year when the 77-year-old visited her late husband's grave, which she has been tending for more than 25 years.

She was shocked to discover that it had been dug up and was covered in fresh flowers.

I was going to be buried with my late husband for the sake of my two children

Joyce Cload

Although she has remarried, Mrs Cload says she always intended to be buried in the double plot with her first husband, Donald, who died in 1975.

"I have not given my consent to anyone else.

"As far as I am concerned, although I have remarried, I was going to be buried with my late husband for the sake of my two children so they could pay their respects to their mother and father."

After finding the grave had been disturbed, she learned her third and oldest child, Michael, from whom she is estranged, gave Mr Preedy's family written permission for the grave to be used.

Mrs Cload claims neither the church nor the undertaker bothered to find out her wishes, even though she has the legal rights to the plot.

She is facing costs of more than �1,000 for the exhumation and re-burial and says she is taking legal advice on how to recover the money.