Friday, February 08, 2008

The real disestablishment of the church?

We all know that the Government likes to remind us that crime is falling, but when you look at how much the value of theft from the Church of England has been in the past few years it looks like it is rising. According to the Church Commissioner, the estimated losses from Chrush due to theft were "£1.5 million in 2005, £2.4 million in 2006 and £8.7 million in 2007".

And what have these theives been pinching from the Chruch? Why the lead on the rooves of course. Gives a whole new meaning to the disestablishment of the Church doesn't it? Thing is, you always hear about this but how exactly does one go about nicking lead from a church roof?

Lead is a pretty dense and weighty substance after all, and you need to get a ladder up. How exactly is it that it such pilfering is so widespread and yet no one notices the ladder going up and the noise of great bloody lumps of lead being hurled to the ground?

10 comments:

rosscoe_peco said...

Not sure that this means people are doing it more though, could just be the changing price of lead.

CC said...

Only a few months ago they even managed to knick some of the lead from Tewkesbury Abbey roof, which, as well as being one of Britain's ecclesiastical gems, is spotlit, in the middle of a town, and clearly visible from the thousands of vehicles using the M5 motorway.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/gloucestershire/7092360.stm

Anonymous said...

Who cares what happens to the Islamo-Anglican church?

Devil's Kitchen said...

No one. I do care what happens to the buildings though, as most churches are rather beautiful.

DK

Anonymous said...

Judging by what Beardie Rownn's been spouting, they've lost a whole load of marbles as well.

Anonymous said...

How the hell did they manage that in Tewkesbury?
I know we aren't too happy with the Archdruid at the moment but we shouldn't let people nick his roofing material.
Its like the fall of Rome or something. I know we don't go in the temples very often but don't vandalise them as it were.
Then again Archwizard could reopen them as Mosques and we could remake the rooves entirely with bugging devices.

Anonymous said...

Archbishop Rowan Atkinson would be more gainfully employed guarding the roofs than speaking to the media. He is even more inept than the police. There are an average of 3 thefts of lead every night in the Northants/Cambs area and where are the police? At diversity awareness meetings?
There's a lot of lead being stolen every night. It's not just churches but schools as well.

Alex said...

Its a big problem for rural churches, many of which are a long way (100+ yards) from the nearest house. The price of lead has err.. gone through the roof.

Anonymous said...

Ah that explains it- The Archbishop wants the thieves' hands cut off before they can nick any more lead.

Anonymous said...

Security precautions in our church, in a quiet country village, are expected to set us back £1,000. That's £2 a head for every inhabitant.