It started as a whisper, in the pubs and bars around the village of Great Brington. By last week an upper-class lady was heard declaring that she had the story on good authority from a justice of the peace she met at a dinner party.
Finally, the Bishop of Peterborough was forced to act after the rumour found its way to the news desks of several Fleet Street tabloids.
The Rt Rev Ian Cundy yesterday took the extraordinary step of releasing the burial certificate of Diana, Princess of Wales, to prove that she is buried on the ornamental island at Althorp, her family estate in Northamptonshire.
Local gossips had come up with an intriguing alternative theory: that the princess was secretly laid to rest in the Spencer family crypt in the parish church of St Mary the Virgin, in Great Brington.
She had been cremated, not buried. Or at least according to a taxi-driver who saw smoke pluming from the local crematorium in the dead of night, she had.
A resident historian, Mr Alan Burman, also claimed to have spoken to a gravedigger who confirmed his suspicions.
"He told me there is a real problem burying coffins in any wet or swampy ground. He even said that one coffin rose up and was washed out into a stream."
Yesterday Mr Paul Needle, a spokesman for the Bishop of Peterborough, said the certificate had been released to put an end to the rumours. He added: "People believe Kennedy is still alive. The fact of the matter is: Was the Bishop conned? We don't think he was."
The vicar of Great Brington, the Rev David MacPherson, flatly denied the cremation story. "The wet concrete around the family vault can be explained," he said. "After Diana's death it was opened in preparation, and then closed when the earl changed his mind."
The certificate, dated September 12th, 1997, was signed by a Sussex priest, the Rev Victor Christian de Roubaix Malan, who was in charge of the burial. It states: "On the 6th day of September 1997 Diana, Princess of Wales, aged 36, was buried in an extra-parochial place, namely at Althorp Park in the County of Northamptonshire in the grave previously consecrated by the Bishop of Peterborough on the Island in the Oval Lake."
The confusion over Diana's final resting place has proved no deterrent to the tens of thousands who have bought tickets to Althorp. Last week about 120,000 tickets to see Diana's grave had been sold. The remaining 30,000 are expected to go in the next few days.