That’s a grave insult! Trainee cemetery workers mistakenly dig practice plot at beauty spot
- Contractors dug a hole in the middle of a field of ‘irreplaceable ecological value’
- Easthill Field, in Frome, Somerset is home to wildlife and endangered dormice
- Activists fighting to protect the field from developers were ‘intensely upset’
Trainee gravediggers have horrified conservationists by digging a practice grave in parkland after mistaking it for a cemetery.
Three trainee contractors were asked to dig a mock grave in a cemetery as part of their training.
But instead of choosing a spot in Easthill Cemetery, they used their mechanical digger to excavate a huge pit in an adjacent field of ‘irreplaceable ecological value’.
Easthill Field, in Frome, Somerset, is home to a myriad of wildlife including endangered dormice.
Trainee gravediggers mistakenly used a digger to excavate a hole in Easthill Field in Frome, Somerset, a site of ‘irreplaceable ecological value’
Campaigners who are fighting to protect the field from a large housing development were ‘intensely upset’ by the mix-up.
Mark Player, of the Friends of Easthill Field, confronted the group, and was told they were following orders as part of their ‘grave-digging education’.
They continued to dig the hole and flatten the surrounding ground.
Mr Player said: ‘We feel passionately about this field because it’s not just a bit of agricultural land that has been intensively farmed – it hasn’t been touched by human development at all.’
Campaigners are currently trying to protect the field from a large housing development and were ‘intensely upset’ by the blunder
Mendip District Council said the trainees were sent to Easthill to avoid disrupting burials at their usual training sites across the district.
A spokesman said the contractor was instructed to conduct the training session on land within the boundaries of the cemetery. But the message was ‘misunderstood’.
The spokesman added: ‘I am satisfied this was simply a communication error.’
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