Controversy was stirred at the weekend when a 200-year-old gravestone at an English church was used for a barbecue; the church vicar called it 'disgraceful'.

As many as 14 people, some of them describing themselves as homeless, used a gravestone for a barbecue at St John's church in Devizes, Wiltshire last weekend, according to BBC News.

The group defended their barbecue, saying that thy had permission from the church for it, and said they weren't causing disrespect as the 200-year-old headstone was not a 'recent grave'.

The party cooked sausages on two disposable barbecues atop the gravestone in the church's graveyard on Saturday night. Those involved said they would do it again, and that the churchyard is 'where we live'.

They said: 'Pretty much everyone who was down here at the time was homeless.

'Where else are we going to have a barbecue, it don't burn the graves and no way is it disrespectful because nobody has visited this grave.'

St John's' vicar, the Revd Canon Paul Richardson, explicitly denied that such church permission was given. 'It is disgraceful that the graves of our local ancestors are being shown such disrespect,' he said.

He added: 'The church has been active in working with Wiltshire Council in trying to home the individuals involved but we are told that they have been reluctant to accept any provision offered.'

The event prompted mixed reactions once news was shared on social media. The image above supposedly showing the barbecue was posted on Facebook and Twitter.

One person told the BBC that it was 'just sick', another said it was 'absolutely disgusting and very disrespectful to the dead'. One Victoria Harvey posted on Facebook that she would be 'quite happy to think someone was having a party on my grave one day'.