A tug-of-war over the ashes of a woman who died nearly five years ago is threatening to tear two Essex families apart.

The dispute between rival siblings has seen their mother's ashes dug up from a cemetery, planted in a back garden and dug up again.

Now a row has broken out over who should pay for the next reburial.

Braintree widow Eleanor Filby, 65, broke down in tears as she told of the family wrangle.

"I don't want all this fuss. All I want is for my mother to be able to rest in peace," she said.

Mrs Filby was present when her brother, Maurice, who lives in Yorkshire, legally dug up her mother Beatrice Bownes' ashes and buried them in the garden of her three-bedroom council house earlier this year.

She said: "My brother in Yorkshire comes down about twice a year and goes to see my mum and dad's graves.

"He didn't like the idea of where she was put because people were literally walking over her grave and he said he didn't want his mother being used as a doormat.

"He said he was going to do something about it and we went down there while he removed the ashes and then we put them in the garden."

But her other brother, Malcolm, took exception and won a legal challenge to get the ashes put back at Maldon cemetery - this time in a marked grave.

"My sister, Sue, and her husband, Peter, came round about two weeks ago and removed mum's ashes from the garden. They said they would call me and come and get me so I could be present when they reburied her."

But Mrs Filby wept: "I haven't heard anything since and I have no idea where my mum is now."

Mrs Filby has since received a bill from Sue and Peter, who live in Great Baddow, near Chelmsford, asking her to contribute towards the £500 costs of reburying the ashes.

"I got a letter demanding £95. I can't afford that, I'm only a pensioner," she said.

Peter Lodge spoke of his sadness at the fiasco surrounding his mother-in-law's ashes. He said: "I find it all very sad. I think the whole thing is so sad. This could all have been settled either at the time she died or just by talking about it when people had a problem."

Peter and Sue called in police when they discovered the casket containing Mrs Bownes' ashes was missing.

"I don't think anybody would have minded if they had been returned temporarily to the plot."

However, he said another grave had been set aside to satisfy the concerns of Maurice and Eleanor and a service to rebury her cremated remains would probably be held this week.

Mr Lodge has spent £500 in fees on organising the reinterment and said all but Eleanor had contributed.

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