VANDALS have caused more than £1,000 worth of damage after breaking into a medieval church and smashing hand-made windows.
The incident, which also saw rocks thrown down a drain and an NG8 graffiti 'tag' written on a wall, took place at St Martin's Church in St Martin's Road, Bilborough, where a significant £744,000 renovation of the building is nearing completion.
Police are investigating and have appealed for anyone with information to come forward. It is believed the vandals struck between 6pm on Friday September 26 and 8am on Monday, September 29.
Church warden, Hilary Wheat, said the renovations have been put back due to the "mindless" vandals.
Mrs Wheat, who is also the renovation's project manager, said: "We arrived on site to find someone had broken into the medieval porch, broken off the padlock and smashed some newly-installed glass. They also lifted a manhole cover, put rocks down a drain and scrawled NG8 on the wall.
"This is just people trying to damage things; this is someone who has done something completely mindless."
Mrs Wheat said the vandals had obviously "used some force" to break the padlock.
She said: "It's horrible, it's just violent damage. The windows are in a small medieval porch and they have smashed each individual four-inch square bit of glass. It's a specialist job and we've had a stained and heritage glass expert put them in.
"He's an expert craftsman who has taken time to make them but he's busy, very well known, and has other jobs – so we will have to wait.
"It's £1,000 we could really do without losing."
The church was awarded a Heritage Lottery grant of £744,000 to restore a number of old features – including the stone floor, wall paintings and hand-carved ceiling – and work began in May, with the project expected to be completed during October.
Four contractors have been working on the project, including three youngsters from Bilborough. Site manager Phil Turton, of P Turton Building and Conservation, said the team was hugely disappointed to discover the damage yesterday morning.
He said: "It's extremely frustrating. I can't understand that they haven't even tried to take anything in, they've just hit the windows. This is nothing more than sheer disrespect, it frustrates us so much especially given the amount of time and effort that has been put in here."
Police have asked for anyone who knows anything about the break-in to contact them on 101, quoting incident 152 of 29 September.
