I recently attended a memorial service at Dixton Church and was genuinely shocked at the fact that such an old building, with roots that go back to the 8th Century, should be left to moulder with a roof that is in immediate need of repair.

Brides used to arrive by boat for their weddings and it is a very peaceful location for reflection and of course a significant landmark on the Wye Valley Walk.

I expect many will assume that CADW or The Church Commissioners, among other bodies, would have taken up the cause, but this is not the case.

Experience elsewhere, even on the nearby Doward, has shown a distressing cascade of events when a derelict or unused church is sold on. Normally any gravestones are laid flat and with the agreement of any families, the most recent remains are exhumed and moved to other sanctified ground. What that doesn’t address is those families who have plots going back over generations and those who have booked and paid for a plot to be used when they die.

Very often there are major complications when families have moved out of area without forwarding addresses, who upon the death of a relative, contact the local funeral director to organise burial close to their childhood roots.

There is a great deal of stress, upset and a large number of loose ends that invariably occur when a church is decommissioned, especially when it has an historic graveyard.

Although I am not a parishioner, or even of Anglican Communion, I would like to flag up to local residents that there is a lot more at stake here than the loss of a building. The amount of money required to make the church watertight for the next three generations is not huge and I feel that those who have relatives buried there, must have an interest in making some sort of donation to assist in the conservation of such a landmark site.

Andrew Hubert von Staufer (Monmouth)