Blunder left daughter tending her father's empty grave for 25 years

Accompanied by her elderly mother, she laid flowers at the spot where she believed his ashes had been buried to mark birthdays and anniversaries.

Now Mrs Hall has learnt that her father's ashes were not buried in the grave in Macclesfield Cemetery in Cheshire.

Since 1982, they had been sitting on a former funeral director's shelf 15 miles away.

The blunder was discovered only when Mrs Hall's mother Hannah passed away days before her 99th birthday and it was requested that she be buried next to her husband.

The Co-op, which was handling the funeral, managed to track down the casket containing the ashes of her father, Ernest Bradbury, which had been left in an independent funeral director's in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, since his death.

It appears they had not been requested for burial and therefore stayed on a shelf with the remains of 30 others.

When the funeral directors closed down, they put all unclaimed ashes into storage.

To make matters, worse, it transpired that the ashes of Mrs Hall's Uncle Walter, which were supposed to have been buried in the same family plot, were not present either.

They have yet to be found.

Now Mrs Hall is planning a new ceremony at which her father's ashes will be interred alongside his wife.

The retired teacher, 69, said yesterday: "I have been taking my mum to see my dad at his stone in Macclesfield Cemetery for the last 25 years.

"If she had found out that he wasn't there, but on a shelf in Altrincham, she would have been devastated.

"I was fuming about it when I found out. I've just been through so many mixed emotions.

"We always just presumed he was there under the kerbstone. It's amazing to think that my poor dad could easily have been on that shelf for another 25 years.

"The funeral directors were fantastic in tracking down his remains."

Mrs Hall, a grandmother of seven, added: "I have also been putting flowers on Uncle Walter's stone but now I know he's not there. I want to know where Uncle Walter is."

Heather Shackley from the Co-op said: "We made a few phone calls and found the ashes where they were put by an independent director who we don't think is working any more."

Funeral bosses say ashes are only ever buried in the grave when it is specifically requested because many relatives prefer to scatter them in poignant places.