Criminal gangs strike at almost half of churches in rural Britain
ALMOST half of listed churches have been targeted by criminals, figures show, as police warn of professional gangs using the latest technology to find easy targets and map out escape routes.
The epidemic of crime is dominated by metal thefts with entire roofs being removed from historic places of worship. The crisis threatening the heritage of rural Britain is now so great that the heritage body Historic England estimates 40 per cent of listed churches have been targeted.
Evidence points to the thefts being highly organised by criminals who use modern technology, including drones, Google Earth and satnavs, to first spot their targets through aerial footage and then plot their routes.
Dioceses that have mapped the target churches have realised that they are found along major arterial routes, allowing the thieves to efficiently commit several crimes in the same area, then make a speedy getaway.
Among the Church of England dioceses affected are Oxford, where the mapping has shown churches dotted along the A40, and Lincoln, where there has been a surge of thefts along the A1 corridor, A15 and A17. The Diocese of Lincoln says that since April, 19 churches have been targeted.
The most recent victim was the church of St Stephen in Careby, which lost half its roof earlier this month. The diocese estimates that one in eight churches in Lincolnshire has been affected in the past decade.
Other counties badly affected are Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire. In Bedfordshire, the parish of All Saints, Houghton Conquest, is struggling to raise £400,000 to replace 20 tons of stolen lead from its roof. According to the Diocese of Oxford, around 20 churches have had lead stripped from their roofs since the middle of the year. Liz Kitch, Oxford’s senior church buildings officer, said that mapping the thefts shows that churches near arterial roads are the most vulnerable.
“We’ve been told that when vehicles used by thieves have been found, there have been lists of churches in them,” she said.
For the churches affected, the loss of a roof is devastating, because strict like-for-like rules for listed buildings mean lead must be replaced with lead that many churches cannot afford, even with insurance payouts. Police are linking the spate of thefts to organised gangs.
Insp James Holden-White, who has dealt with several thefts of church roofs in the Bicester area of Oxfordshire, warned the public not to approach the thieves.
“The impact of these crimes is huge,” he said. “They are planned in advance by people who know exactly what they are doing. These are people who are involved in other crimes and they go armed with crowbars and hammers – these can also be used as weapons.”