Community helps church after vandalism
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Norfolk community has rallied around to help restore a village church left devastated by a vandal attack.
Yobs desecrated graves, smashed windows, knocked crosses off the altar and damaged the font at
St Mary's Church, in
Great Plumstead, near
Norwich, on Saturday, July 7.
But just five days later the headstones had been professionally restored and repaired, the tiles to the porch roof had been replaced, and the damaged pews inside the church had been repaired.
An army of more than 40 people even dusted, cleaned and polished the inside of the church and
Little Plumstead Primary School held a non-school uniform day on Tuesday July 17, which raised £300 for the St Mary's fund.
Rector Rev Michael Kingston has now praised the dozens of people who rallied round to help minimize the impact of the callous attack.
He said: “It is quite incredible to see how a community can come together so swiftly and efficiently making a triumph out of a tragedy. I would never have thought so much could
have been achieved in so short a time.
“If you visited the church today, the picture is very different to the way it was after the vandalism. The only signs of damage are three boarded windows.
“I would just like to thank everyone who has assisted in any way.”
Little Plumstead head teacher
Linda Phillips said: “Although we understand that the insurance company will cover most of the costs to repair the damage done, we felt that our non-uniform fundraising day would signify our support for the church. We would like to use the money to buy a cruet for communion, which was damaged in the attack.
“It just shows how tight a community Little Plumstead is and how much people rally around when something like this happens.”
A 23-year-old man from Brundall was arrested on suspicion of being involved in damaging the grave and has been bailed to reattend Yarmouth police station on August 9.
Pictured above is the Rev Michael Kingston and local resident John Murphy in the restored Great Plumstead churchyard.