A limb of a beech tree fell in St Mary’s Churchyard in Monmouth today.

Luckily it was not one of the larger limbs hanging over the railings over Whitecross Street and was quickly dispatched by a tree surgeon working for the church group.

The trees are surveyed every few years, and it was one of these surveys which recently spotted a root fungus on one of the copper beech trees which meant the felling of the complete tree.

These magnificent trees are prone to root rot and this can make the tree brittle and dangerous.

A larger beech tree in 2005 was also cut down following one of these surveys and another close to Monk Street was felled a few years later.