A £350,000 restoration of Sir Winston Churchill's grave is a waste of money, claims a priest who officiated at the war leader's burial.

The intervention comes as the Churchill family were gathering in Oxfordshire for the re-dedication of Churchill's grave at St Martin's Church, Bladon, tomorrow.

The Rev John Fearn, 64, a priest at the church when Sir Winston was buried there, said the amount spent on the restoration was "over the top" and could have been better spent elsewhere.

He said: "I feel that the £350,000 outlay by the Trustees in re-furbishing all the family gravestones at Bladon could have been better spent on a more humanitarian cause or a scholarship.

"In my humble opinion, the original memorial was perfectly adequate for the final resting place of such an eminent statesman.

"It is up to the Trustees, but I think it would have been better to have left the graves in peace. This is over the top.

"It is a country churchyard. People come to pay their respects, they don't want to be inspired by a mausoleum."

His comments angered the wartime leader's grandson, the former Tory MP Winston Churchill, who said: "He is a long way away from Bladon. He is clearly not in touch with the situation. "We were getting a disturbing number of letters from people recording their disgust and dismay at the way the family was looking after the grave site.

"People from places like Australia and the United States were writing to say they were shocked by the condition of the graves. Many thousands come to the grave each year, in numbers far beyond what was anticipated when my grandfather took the decision to be buried there."

Mr Churchill said the grave side was often turned into a "quagmire" because of coachloads of visitors. "What this man fails to appreciate is that my grandfather was buried on a slight incline and that the graves were perceptively sinking and sliding down the hillside.

"We felt the time had come to do something considerably more splendid than had been possible at the time of my grandfather's death."

The work carried out by Long Hanborough stonemasons J. Joslin Ltd. involved restoring 16 Churchill gravestones.

The re-dedication ceremony is being held tomorrow to mark the anniversary of VE Day. Among those attending will be Churchill's daughter Lady Soames and the Duke of Marlborough.

Mr Fearn, now an adviser for the diocese of Hereford, was priest in charge at Bladon from 1964 to 1967.

He left amid reports of a row with rector the Rev John James over money, which Mr Fearn strongly denied. The then Bishop of Oxford, Dr Harry Carpenter, urged him to leave "for the sake of the parish.

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