A church has banned a memorial to a stillborn baby which featured hand and footprints because they feared it would "over-sentimentalise" the graveyard.

The Chancellor of the Diocese of Manchester, Geoffrey Tattersall QC, turned down a request from Natasha and Benjamin Bibby for a blue granite gravestone in the shape of a heart, etched with personal prints, in memory of their son, Kai-Jay Bibby, who was stillborn four years ago.

In his role as a judge of the Church's Consistory Court, Chancellor Tattersall stuck to strict rules over the form of gravestones.

He concluded: "It seems to me that the stars, heart, hand and footprints would over-sentimentalise the memorial in a way which is undesirable and unnecessary and would be inappropriate in this particular churchyard.

“Further, I have never previously come across a case where it has ever been sought or permitted to include handprints or footprints on a memorial.”

The couple, from Bolton, wanted the gravestone to be erected at the Grade II listed St Saviour's church yard in Ringley where there are already three other heart shaped gravestones. One of them marks the grave of the Kai-Jay’s great aunt, Anne Goodier, who died in 2011.

Writing to the Diocesan Advisory Committee to be granted permission to erect the gravestone, Mrs Bibby said: "The shape of the stone we have chosen is a heart shape. We wish to have this shape as a heart is a symbol of love.”