RAWLINGS - On July 23rd, 1974, at her home, 12 Berkeley Road, Newbury, Mabel, beloved wife of the late Brice Rawlings and a dear mother of Doll, Dar, Ivy, Ted and Bill and a dear grandmother, great grandmother and great great grandmother, passed peacefully away, at the age of 91 years.

A Newbury woman sobbed this week as she told how sheep in the Newtown Road cemetery destroyed the wreaths and flowers on her mother’s grave only hours after the burial.

Mrs. Ivy Sherriff of 73a Bartholomew Street, went to the cemetery with a friend on Tuesday – the day after the funeral.

She found the grave littered with petals and stalks... and very little left of the 30 to 40 wreaths and floral tributes which had been placed by relatives and friends.

“It was dreadful,” a tearful Mrs. Sherriff told an NWN reporter shortly after returning from the cemetery. “I just broke down and cried when I saw it.

“We had a lovely lot of flowers and they’re gone just like that. My mother was a wonderful woman and she loved flowers as well. Anything like this would have upset her dreadfully if it happened to anyone one else.”

Mrs. Sherriff’s mother was 91-year old Mrs. Mable Rawlings, of 12 Berkeley Road, Newbury. She died on Tuesday last week and was buried in her son’s grave in Newtown Road.

Sheep have been grazing in the cemetery since the local authority decided some months ago that it would solve the problem of keeping the grass in the rough areas neat and the place generally tidy.

Before the animals were introduced, families were given the chance of having fences erected in the cemetery...  and this course was followed by Mrs. Rawlings to keep the sheep off her son’s grave.

But the fencing didn’t prevent the sheep from getting to the wreaths and flowers on the grave on Monday.

Apparently the sheep were able to poke their heads through the fence and straddle the wire strands with their bodies while eating the flowers.

“The sheep are able to get almost right through by lying on the wire,” confirmed Mrs. Sherriff’s husband, Ron. “I know because i have just been up there myself and they were having a real picnic then.”

Only two or three wreaths were left intact by the animals and many of the containers and cards appeared to have been eaten as well.

After getting over the shock on Tuesday, Mrs. Sherriff spoke to her daughter, ______ at ______ , who immediately rang up Newbury District Council.

Mr. Trevor Phillips, the council’s recreation and amenities officer, said yesterday “We obviously sympathise with the family but in practical terms it is a very difficult problem.

“The fence was normal sheep-fencing and no animals actually got into the grave. But they were able to poke their heads through and eat willy-nilly where the wreaths were near the edge.”

Mr. Phillips added “We shall be explaining what unfortunately occurred but we shall have to point out that it was mentioned to the family that this could happen and the wreaths should be placed in the middle away from the fencing.”

Mrs. Sherriff and her daughter now intend to wait until the headstone is put up and then erect their own fencing. “We are not leaving the other fence there,” said __________.

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