News
Lead Theft - £35,000 damage
Rain has poured into 200-year-old St George's Parish Church, in Tyldesley, Wigan, damaging the building and its 137-year-old organ.
Church warden Kevin Bracegirdle believes the thieves spent at least two hours removing the 50square metres of lead flashing. He said: "It's just so disheartening that a building that is there for the community has been damaged by mindless individuals who think of nothing but themselves.
"The value of lead is now extremely high and this is the fourth theft we have had in the last six months.
"Before this they have always been smaller thefts that cost several hundred pounds to replace - not to this degree.
"It is a major problem for churches at the moment. There is a real epidemic."
Church officials believe the lead was carried away in the church's wheelie bins.
Mr Bracegirdle said: "I think they have been there a good couple of hours. And they would have needed two sets of ladders because of the height of the church itself. The roof is 20ft up.
"It's definitely not a one-man job - but how many there were we have no idea.
"I do think it's the same people who have done it in the past. From ground level you cannot tell we have a lead roof - so they must have been up before."
The church, which has a regular congregation of 90, is surrounded on three sides by houses.
Church officials are asking anyone who saw or heard the thieves to contact them.
The theft is thought to have taken place last Thursday.
Officials say tens of thousands of pounds of work to modernise the west end of the church with disabled toilets will have to be re-done as a result of the flooding.