Pewsey man Colin King is disgusted that his family’s graves have become hidden beneath brambles because they are in a conservation area.

Mr King’s great-grandparents Alfred and Eliza Reynolds, grandparents Hilda and Alfred King and great-aunt Murial Reynolds are buried at Oare cemetery.

He goes to visit their graves around eight times a year and had always cleared the area around the headstones himself but became alarmed when shrubs and brambles started to overtake the area at the back of the cemetery.

He wrote in the visitors’ book to voice his concern and when he returned there was a reply informing him that the land was in a conservation area.

Mr Reynolds, who died in 1930, lived in The Limes opposite the church and was a greyhound trainer and at one point owned the Greyhound pub in Pewsey.

The family donated a stained glass window to the church and provided Oare with a village hall, which no longer exists.

Mr King, of Wilcot Road, Pewsey, said: “I was quite angry when I first saw it, not just because my family were God-fearing people and gave so much to the church and the village, but it just seems disrespectful.

“People go to graveyards to research their family history but anyone attempting to find graves amongst the undergrowth would find it disgusting.”

He contacted the church to find out if he was allowed to clear the area around his family’s graves and was told that this was okay.

He said: “If everyone is allowed to clear the area around their relatives’ graves then it’s not really conservation. I think it’s just down to laziness or cost cutting.

“If this area is allowed to follow its natural course larger shrubs and trees will become established with the result that headstones will be lifted and destroyed.”

A spokesman for the Salisbury Diocese said that the cemetery is involved in the Living Churchyard and Cemetery Project, which aims to promote ancient cemeteries as a valuable source of biodiversity.