Request by Edith de Lisle to dig up parents' ashes in Hungarton is rejected

A senior church court judge has refused a woman's request to have her parents' ashes exhumed.

Edith de Lisle asked the Church of England for permission to have her parents' cremated remains disinterred from St John the Baptist churchyard, in Hungarton.

They were buried there – near the family's estate at Quenby Hall – when her mother died in 1995.

Quenby Hall Dairy – owned by Mrs de Lisle's son Freddie and located in the grounds of the hall – went into administration in April 2011 after a buyer for the stilton-maker could not be found.

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The grade I-listed Jacobean manor house, which has 11 bedrooms and sits in 1,135 acres, is for sale with a guide price of £11 million.

Mrs de Lisle, who prefers to be addressed as Madam, wanted to move the ashes of her parents, Frederick and Eva Krarup, to the family burial ground at Mount St Bernard Abbey, near Whitwick.

But in a written Consistory Court judgement, Chancellor Mark Blackett-Ord ruled she could not exhume her parents' remains.

In his judgement, he said Mr and Mrs Krarup's remains had been "buried with care and consideration by Madam de Lisle in the consecrated churchyard where they now lie".

Mrs Krarup was cremated in Madrid in 1995 and her remains were brought back to England.

Madam de Lisle succeeded in having Mr Krarup's remains exhumed from his grave in Peru so the couple could be buried together at Hungarton.

Chancellor Blackett-Ord said: "Indeed, she must have gone to very considerable lengths to procure their removal to Hungarton from Peru and Spain.

"What has really changed is the unfortunate probability that Quenby Hall will not survive as the centre of the lives of her descendants.

"I have to say I consider this is a bad reason for justifying the removal of the ashes."

He said it had been previously established that allowing disinterment on the grounds of a family moving house would make "unacceptable inroads into the principle of permanence of Christian burial".

In his written judgement Chancellor Blackett-Ord said: "Unfortunately, Frederick's business at Quenby Hall was unsuccessful and the hall will have to be sold.

"It is clear this has been a great shock to the family.

"Madam de Lisle stated (in correspondence before the ruling) 'the family will have to be uprooted from what they had come to view as their home for generations to come'."

He expressed regret, but refused Madam de Lisle's application.

Freddie de Lisle said he could not comment on the ruling, or whether the sale of Quenby Hall was related to the liquidation of the dairy company.

He said his parents were out of the country and unavailable for comment.