A woman says the overgrown state of Ledbury Cemetery has left her “shocked and heartbroken”.

Julie Brown visits her family’s plot at the cemetery regularly but says the long grass and nettles meant she struggled to walk to it on her most recent visit.

“I was just going to have a look at nan’s grave - I call it that but the family are in there,” she said.

“But I could barely walk through the cemetery to get down there. When I got there, I just cried.”

Julie, who was born and raised in Ledbury but now lives in Newent, works in Ledbury as a domiciliary carer and often visits the cemetery when she’s in town.

She said the grave was left neat and tidy on her last visit a couple of months ago.

“I was shocked and heartbroken to see it like this,” she said. “If I didn’t know where the grave was, I wouldn’t have been able to find it and the struggle to walk through to get to it is totally unfair.

“There are some beautiful graves down there - not just my nan’s - and ours has been kept neat and tidy for 60 years.

“It’s such an important place for people to be able to go.

“I remember going there as a little girl - my dad would take his mower and after he’d cut the grass, he’d sit on the mower while I tidied around the grave.

“My dad would be devastated to see it like this.”

READ MORE: Mowing equipment stolen during break-in at cemetery

Julia Lawrence, Ledbury Town Council’s deputy town clerk, said the grass in the old part of the cemetery was due to be cut next week.

“We are working very hard on the cemetery at the moment,” she said.

“We have had problems with broken-down mowers and the theft of other vital equipment, but we’ve got an extra pair of hands in and we’re determined to bring it up to scratch.

“Part of the problem is that even when we mow the grass, there are a lot of thistles and weeds on people’s graves and they are not Ledbury Town Council’s responsibility to maintain.

“Having said that, we are going to clear the whole area as a one-off to get it looking tidy again.”