Historic Churches 2022

34 BCD SPECIAL REPORT ON HISTORIC CHURCHES 29TH ANNUAL EDITION years from these attacks being undertaken by lone, opportunistic individuals to more organised gangs. These gangs are marking easy targets and few places are as attractive as churches, for those who fear no divine retribution. Teams of thieves, many of whom may be experienced in the building trade, can strip a roof of sheet metal in a matter of hours. With correct technique, personnel and equipment, many tonnes of metal can be peeled or rolled and carted away. Some specialist church insurers are now reluctant to insure any churches with metal roofs. One defining characteristic of metal theft is the motivation. Whereas other items are generally stolen for their extrinsic value, metals are stolen for their intrinsic value as raw material or commodities. Thefts often have negative consequences much greater than the value of the metal stolen, such as damage and destruction to listed buildings and internal damage to timber and plaster work when roofs are stolen. At St Mary’s, Kirtlington for example (see illustration), the thieves did not get away with much of the lead before a curious neighbour decided to call the police. Nevertheless, this clearly well-schooled gang was able to cause significant damage that will cost tens of thousands to put right, even if they didn’t ultimately manage to take their spoils with them. The increase in organised crime in this field carries on in spite of a clampdown on unlawful scrap metal dealers in 2013 when the Scrap Metal Dealers Act was amended. This made it illegal for dealers to operate without a licence or to pay cash for scrap metal, and all sellers of scrap metal had to show ID. This may have resulted in opportunist thieves leaving this field of crime to the more organised criminal gangs. The churches now targeted have been carefully chosen. Well- disciplined teams of people have come in, working fast to remove large amounts of lead and copper sheet roofing and other components before disappearing. St Mary the Virgin, Kirtlington, Oxfordshire, with neatly rolled up sheets of lead left in a hurry by the burglars (Photo: Angus Brown) Wall Street believes copper will play a huge role in two major trends; electric vehicles and decarbonisation. If not enough copper is being mined from underground deposits or coming from scrap yards to feed the coming demand, this could to lead to a severe copper shortage when all the big car companies start making more electric vehicles. The feared copper shortage isn’t the world running out of copper, it’s more about the current mining and recycling infrastructure not being able to meet a potential boom in demand. The last time copper prices peaked, just before the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009, people were stealing copper wires out of the ground, copper pipes, sheet roofing and even lightning conductors, which are usually made of a heavy gauge, high quality copper. At All Saints Church in Little Staughton, Bedfordshire when thieves ripped down and stole a copper lightning conductor, they accidentally pulled down the church spire too. Masonry from the spire crashed to the ground during the raid, causing an estimated £50,000 of damage in the process. Due to the rising value of scrap metal, churches remain under constant threat of lead or copper being stolen from the exterior of the building. Insurers and the security industry have seen a shift over the All Saints, Stretford, Manchester, stripped of its copper sheet roofing and (right) a close-up showing how they cut and removed the copper sheet (Photo: Angus Brown)