It sounds to me as though this could be quite an old budlieja, has it got any foliage?, if its a large neglected type that has not been pruned properly, then sections of it may lose the bark and die off, if so prune these out, if you have foliage on other sections then you can still come down now, thats assuming its an old type, if however all sections are loseing bark with no foliage the the prognosis will be bleak, julien.

Thanks Julien. It's not too tall about 6' and i've had this for a good few years, I'll get some cuttings and cut it down.

Gail x