How one church chose to right past wrongs

SIR – Simon Heffer (Hinterland, February 25) discusses the latest edition of Pevsner on Surrey, and the “spectacular” memorial to Sir Robert Clayton and his wife in St Mary’s Church, Bletchingley, where I have been a churchwarden.

The memorial may be “one of the finest pieces of sculpture in Queen Anne’s reign”, but it is a cause of great unease in the reign of Charles III. This is because both Sir Robert and his wife made fortunes out of slavery – he through slave trading and she through family ownership of slaves.

The size of the monument makes it impossible to move and, indeed, it props up the east wall of the south aisle. We have renamed its immediate surroundings the Chapel of Reconciliation, and attached posters of explanation and a photo of Desmond Tutu, the most illustrious of our erstwhile curates.

This is the Church of England’s favoured approach, where it is possible. It has been welcomed by all except one of our congregation.

April Alexander Bletchingley, Surrey