A judge has given rare legal permission for a Sevenoaks husband and wife to be re-united in the grave.

It means the ashes of Martin Charles John Barber, who died in 2006 aged 83, can be exhumed, then re-buried in another plot in Greatness Park Cemetery with those of his wife, Ada, who died in February this year.

Normally permission for exhumation of the remains of the dead from consecrated ground is refused except in “exceptional” circumstances, on the basis that under Christian doctrine a last resting place must be just that.

But in this case John Gallagher, Chancellor of the Diocese of Rochester, in his role as a judge of the Church of England’s Consistory Court has over-ridden the normal rules and held that the circumstances in this case are exceptional.

In his judgment Chancellor Gallagher said it was the wish of Mr and Mrs Barber that their remains should be buried together.

A photograph shown to the court of the memorial stone put over Mr Barber’s remains showed space had been left for his wife's name to be added when her time came.

However, when arrangements were being made by Mr and Mrs Barber’s family to carry out this wish, it was discovered that this was not possible as Mr Barber’s ashes had only been buried two feet below the surface. They would have had to be disturbed, in breach of church rules, if Mrs Barber’s ashes were to be buried with them.

“In these very particular circumstances I am satisfied that this is a case where I can take an exceptional course" - John Gallagher

As a result the family bought a second plot in the cemetery and had Mrs Barber’s ashes buried in that. And now, despite the strict church rules on exhumation, they have been given the go-ahead for Mr Barber’s ashes to be exhumed from their shallow grave and re-buried with those of his wife in the new plot.

In giving consent Chancellor Gallagher said the church presumption was that “the burial of human remains in consecrated ground is permanent.”

He continued : “The Court can only depart from the principle of permanence if the petitioners can establish special circumstances to allow an exception to that principle.”

But he said the cemetery authorities had made a mistake in this case in not letting Mrs Barber know that because of the depth that her husband’s ashes were being buried, she would not be able to join him when her time came.

As a result he said: “In these very particular circumstances I am satisfied that this is a case where I can take an exceptional course, and authorise the exhumation of the cremated remains of the late Mr Barber so that they may be reinterred in the grave plot where the mortal remains of his more recently deceased wife have been interred."

Mr and Mrs Barber had lived in Sevenoaks since 1957 until they died.