Thieves steal church lead tiles

Thieves have stripped £25,000 worth of lead from the roof of a landmark Black Country church just weeks after restoration work was completed.

They then returned to remove the remaining lead from St Mary's Church in Kingswinford, which dates back to the 12th century, and is the oldest church in the borough.

Work to restore the roof and Norman tower, costing £186,000, has only just finished.

The theft is the latest in a wave of attacks on churches to steal lead, which is flogged on the lucrative black market, and which has prompted police to set up Operation Steel.

Church warden Graham Hackett said it was very disheartening."The congregation is very angry," he said.

"It is disturbing that these people have no respect for places of worship.

"It is frightening to think that they will go to the lengths of climbing on to a roof to steal lead."

Mr Hackett said the thieves had smashed their way through the church gates to gain entry and then clambered on to the roof to remove the lead.

St Mary's launched a £600,000 restoration project three years ago. Phase one was renovation of the leaking roof.

It was also deemed unsafe when several years ago a piece of masonry fell off and narrowly missed mourners who were attending a funeral. Phase two will involve further work to the structure of the church and the final phase will involve repairs to internal damage caused by the rainwater. English Heritage has awarded money for the scheme but Mr Hackett said the theft was a major setback financially.

"He added: "It is going to make life very difficult as we will now have to find an extra slice of money.

"We will have to consider another way of fixing the roof perhaps using stainless steel which is not so easy to steal."

Mr Hackett also said the church would be reviewing security and may look at installing cameras.