GRAVES in a disused Highworth burial ground could be moved to make way for a sheltered housing project.

Bristol-based developer, McCarthy and Stone plans to build a sheltered housing complex of 48 homes on land adjacent to the Vorda Works on Brewery Street, Highworth.

But a small area of the proposed site stands on a former graveyard of the town's United Reformed Church.

A spokesman for McCarthy and Stone, Anne French said: "This has not delayed any of our plans as we have not yet begun building work.

"A small part of the burial ground falls into the site we are planning to build on and we have applied to the Home Office for this to be carried out."

The developers must now wait at least two months before any work can begin under the rules of the Disused Burial Grounds Act to allow any families of those interred there to have their say about the future of the site.

Any representative or relative of anyone buried at the site less than 50 years ago can object to the building going ahead.

However if no notice has been given to the developers within two months, the firm can go ahead with development.

Any remains found as workmen move on too the site will be re-buried at the cemetery in Cricklade Road in Highworth.

Local historian Graham Tanner believes the last time anyone was buried in the area was more than 50 years ago.

He said: "The church is still in use today as the United Reformed Church but all burials are now carried out at the main cemetery in Cricklade Road instead."

The building was previously known as the village's Congregational and Zion chapel.

Mr Tanner added: "I believe the last time anyone was buried there was in the 1950s when the founder of the Vorda Matting factory, Angell Smith was buried there."

For more information about the burial rights on the site or how to object about the scheme write to: Lorena Brown at McCarthy and Stone, Apex House, Westerleigh Business Park, Turner Drive, Yate, Bristol, BS37 5YX.

Anthony Osborne