Haworth Parish Church’s graveyard has been slammed as “shameful”.

Grass is waist-high at the site, close to the tourist honeypot of the Bronte Parsonage Museum.

Bradford Council, which is responsible for its maintenance, this week blamed the weather conditions. A spokesman said: “Unfortunately, due to the warm, wet weather, the grass has had a rapid growth rate this season,” adding it was due to be cut imminently.

The complaint was raised by Thelma Shackleton, 68, who has been been visiting the graveyard – where her parents are buried – for 60 years. She said the grass had been allowed to grow so high that people looking for a particular grave would struggle to find the right place.

A spokesman for the parish church said as the graveyard had been closed to new burials for many years, responsibility for it lay with Bradford Council.

Mrs Shackleton, a retired clerk from Fell Lane, said: “Whoever is responsible for the upkeep of Haworth Parish Church graveyard should be totally ashamed of the state it is in.

“I recently visited it to go to my parents’ grave and was absolutely appalled at what I encountered. The grass was waist high and the whole place totally neglected – a really dreadful sight for someone’s final resting place.

“Whatever visitors think must be beyond belief as they look around the churchyard?”

She said her parents, Haworth residents Ethel and John, died within a year of each other in 1953 and 1954.

She and her sister Eileen, who also lives in Keighley, have been visiting their parents’ shared plot for decades, bringing flowers on special occasions.

Mrs Shackleton said she visited the graveyard earlier this month and said: “As far as I know it hasn’t been this bad before. When we went down we had garden shears, so we could tidy up the area around my parents’ grave.

“But the rest of the place just looked dreadful. I understand that one reason for this is the weather.”

She added: “They’re spending all this money on the church building itself, yet the graveyard is like this.”

Most members of the Bronte family are buried in a vault beneath the church. John Huxley, secretary of the parochial church council, said: “I do understand that Bradford has budgetary constraints.

“To clear a churchyard of that size is going to take a fair amount of money.”

The council spokesman said: “The grass in the churchyard is only scheduled to be cut six times – once a month from May to October – so the grass will be getting quite long as it is due for a cut again this week.”