From the Revd Chistopher Wilson

Sir, — Nigel Williams can rest assured: we’ve been on the case (Letters, 31 July). We looked at the possibility of hosting the 22-metre Dippy Diplodocus at All Saints’, Leamington Spa. The younger adults were even more enthusiastic than I, and we could all see the potential for scientific/religious debate and much more. We would happily have put up with the inevitable jibes that the church is full of old fossils.

The idea was still skeletal when we found out that environmental controls have to be in place, and so we ruled ourselves out. We will have to be content with my 6cm ammonite; at least it will take less fossil fuel.

CHRISTOPHER WILSON
Clive House, Kenilworth Road
Leamington Spa CV32 5TL

From the Revd Colin Alsbury

Sir, — The encouragement from Nigel Williams to offer ecclesiastical hospitality to dinosaurs will not come as news to the parishioners at Christ Church, Higher Bebington.

The church foundation stone was laid in 1857, and stone from the local Storeton quarry used in the construction. When, in 1899, a particularly fine specimen of the footprints of the former resident dinosaur Cheirotherium storetonia was found in the quarries, the vicar persuaded the owners to give a section to the church, and it was built into the wall in the tower porch of the parish church.

I enjoyed the sight of those footprints throughout my youth, and have always been more troubled by how we accommodate our metaphorical dinosaurs.

COLIN ALSBURY
St John’s Vicarage, Vicarage Close
Frome, Somerset BA11 1QL