11:30am Saturday 13th March 2010
By Rachel Allen
Widow Joan Reynolds visited her husband’s graveside last week to find plantholders had gone missing just eight months after his death.
The 84-year-old said she was distraught when she discovered the loss on visiting the grave of her husband Phillip in Ladbrook Lane Cemetery, Corsham.
She said: “The plants were there when I went on Saturday afternoon but when I went back on Monday they had gone.
“I had been going down every day or so to make sure there was something nice there.
“I can’t understand why somebody would do this. I was just devastated when I saw that they had gone.”
Mr Reynolds died of cancer on July 17, aged 87, just six months after the couple celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary.
Mrs Reynolds, of Brakspear Drive, Corsham, had bought a boat-shaped wicker basket planted with yellow and mauve primroses for her husband’s grave.
The basket had been taken, along with two pots which had been placed on each side of the grave and a colourful pot which had been at the front.
“Whenever I look at it now I find it quite upsetting,” she said.
Her son, David, 47, had been to the cemetery earlier that day, but he thought she had just taken the arrangements away to tidy up.
Corsham Town Council, which owns and runs Ladbrook Cemetery, had not been informed of the incident, but deputy town clerk and burials officer Pete Biggins said he was disappointed that what appears to be a theft could have happened.
He said: “We have not been informed of this incident as yet.
“We are very fortunate in our out-of-town locations, we have never really had any significant problems as such.
“However there is a right of way running through the cemetery which means we cannot lock it.
“It is very disappointing that people would steal from the cemetery.”
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