EXHUME 101
Grandson wins fight to dig up relatives... to stop them being trampled by pilgrims visiting Orwell’s gravestone
THEY were buried in the picturesque country churchyard more than a century ago.
But Robert Hanks and his second wife Mary can no longer rest in peace – because of fans of author George Orwell.
Mr Hanks, a coal merchant, died in 1879 aged 63. Mrs Hanks, a blacksmith’s daughter, died in 1910 aged 80. Near them in All Saints churchyard in the Oxfordshire village of Sutton Courtenay, lies Orwell – under his real name Eric Arthur Blair. Admirers flock to his grave, leaving tributes.
But with work due to begin on an extension to the Grade I listed medieval church, William Hanks is worried that those on a literary pilgrimage will begin taking a short cut across the double grave of his great-great-grandparents.
He has won rarely granted permission to have the couple exhumed and reburied after a judge ruled that their current grave was no longer a suitable resting place, it emerged yesterday.
Such permission has to be granted by the Church of England’s Consistory Court. Requests are refused more often than not as the Church believes a last resting place should be just that unless there are exceptional circumstances.
But David Hodge QC, chancellor of the diocese of Oxford, in his role as a judge of the Consistory Court, said All Saints was one of very few churches accredited as a ‘place of interest’ by Visit England. The church’s visitor book provides evidence of people travelling from all over the world to see the grave of Ninety Eighty-Four and Animal Farm author Orwell, on which a red rose tree is planted.
Liberal Party leader Herbert Asquith, who was prime minister between 1908 and 1916, was also buried at All Saints on his death in 1928 aged 75. His large stone tomb also attracts visitors.
Mr Hanks’s concern was that when the church extension – to house a new kitchen, toilets and a meeting room – is finished, the plot containing his great-greatgrandparents’ grave would be left on an ‘island’ within the churchyard, with paths on three sides and the extension on the fourth. The judge said: ‘The grave will lie on the route of a “short-cut” between the external entrance to the new extension and the path to the north, and the petitioner no doubt fears that this will become a “desire line”. In view of the popularity of the church and its churchyard with visitors, the petitioner’s concerns cannot be discounted. The petitioner’s particular concern is the likelihood that people will walk across the grave to get to and from the extension.’
Referring to the reluctance of the Church to agree to exhumation he said ‘permanence is the norm for Christian burial and permission for exhumation is only granted exceptionally’.
However, granting permission for the remains to be moved to another plot in the churchyard, he said: ‘On the unusual facts of the present case, I hold that the petitioner has satisfied the court, on the balance of probabilities, that there are special circumstances which constitute good and proper reason for making an exception to the norm that Christian burial in consecrated ground is final.’
As far as the logistics of the exhumation were concerned, he said that the original coffins would presumably have disintegrated but he had been told that a new coffin would be supplied for the remains of the couple, and the local rector would carry out a service for the reburial which would be attended by family members.
Mr Hanks declined to comment yesterday. Official records show that Robert Hanks was born in Abingdon and married Mary in 1853, following the death of his first wife Elizabeth. They had three sons – Robert, William and Thomas – plus the merchant’s son Stephen from his first marriage.