Part of a church's roof that was targeted by thieves has been replaced - but fundraising continues for more repair works.

On March 16, 2020, thieves stole around £5,000 worth of lead from St Martin's Church roof, Cheselborne, near Dorchester, leaving it exposed to the elements. They also caused approximately £60,000 of damage to the roof alone.

Four men were later charged in connection with this incident and others, which caused more than £2 million worth of damage to churches across the UK. They received a total of 22 years in total after pleading guilty to 66 offences of theft.

Temporary sheeting was put in place, but it was not enough to completely weatherproof the roof and water has caused the ceiling of the south transept to become unstable.

The roof was insured but due to the risk of lead theft nationally, the limited security measures that can be put in place, and the fact the church had been targeted in the past, the insurance covered less than £8,000 of the damage.

To risk further theft, Cheselbourne PCC decided to replace the lead roof with stainless steel as it would give the traditional appearance, be waterproof, last for decades and remove the incentive for further thefts. However, this also cost 10 to 15 per cent more.

This cost £65,000, not including internal water damage, with initial funds from the PCCs reserves and insurance claim. The Friends of St Martin's was reinstated to help with fundraising and the PCC has applied for grants.

So far, the south aisle of the church has been re-roofed with stainless steel by Mike White Ltd and works on the north aisle have been put on hold until April 2022 due to winter bat movement.

A spokesman said: "This is a huge achievement for a village the size of Cheselbourne and it's impossible to thank everyone, but special thanks go to National Churches Trust and Allchurches Trust Ltd, whose grants provided the bulk of the funding, and St Martin's Church Warden Nina Shaw-Porter for all her work to secure these grants with the help of the PCC.

"Special thanks to Marilyn and Jeremy Smith for their Easter and Halloween trails that helped raise the profile of the church in the community, as well as helping raise the spirits of the village coming out of a tough year."

Fundraising continues

The spokesman added: "Hopefully by April we will have the finances in place to not only dot the north aisle roof, but also fund the work to repair the internal damage that the lack of a roof caused.

"While this work is clearly critical to the structure of the building, these repairs are essential for more. It allows us to ensure that the community can celebrate their life's milestones in a beautiful, historic building without one eye on the damage the theft of the lead roof has caused. Whether it's a wedding, a christening, weekly worship or even a funeral, it allows everyone to focus on building memories of the event, and not the building.