WORK is set to start on an extension to Calne's cemetery within the next two weeks.

The town council estimates the cemetery in Curzon Street will be full in a year's time.

Work is now due to start on a strip of land positioned behind the cemetery, set aside by the council for the extension more than five years ago.

The council said it hoped the extension would give the cemetery another 20 years of use.

The land will have to be cleared of vegetation and rubbish and then levelled before it will be ready for use.

Calne Town Council's burials officer, Shirley Chapell, said the council was not sure how long the work would take, but hoped the extension would be ready for burials within two months.

The cemetery was opened in 1886. The Victorians used the land nearest the entrance for burials and the earliest graves are to be found there.