I READ with interest the article regarding St Michael’s churchyard at Well, near Bedale, and the damaged headstones (DST, May 29).

A great many of my family are buried in Well churchyard, some have lain there for several decades and the sheep have been a part of churchyard life for as long as I can remember, as they are in churchyards up and down the country. They serve as a cost effective way of keeping the grass down.

The sad fact is that families do not tend graves as they did years ago – if they did Well churchyard would look very different. Neither my grandfather’s headstone nor my mother’s have never been damaged by the sheep and they have been there since the 1950s, but the more modern headstones don’t seem to be so well erected as the older ones.

Unfortunately, the headstone that Mr Allen Daniel was pictured with is that of my godmother, Annie Auton, and it had already been laid down because it had become loose and was waiting for repair.

If Mr Daniel does not like the sheep in the churchyard, does he have an alternative method to keep the grass short – perhaps a rota system of people from the village to mow it and keep the churchyard tidy?

Ann Russell, Snape, Bedale