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November 15, 2007
Abbey roof thefts .....
Well, our thieving visitors didn't return last night, but I have still had to spend the day at the Abbey with TV crews, police and insurers. It hasn't left much time for anything else in fact. But the following photographs give an idea of what has been stolen and from where.
The East End gulley. This is a main part of the roof darinage system and can run up to twelve inches deep in water since all the upper roof drains into this. It measures some 3 metres in width by roughly 15 metres in length.
The North side of the gulley, showing a further 3 metres by around 6 metres stripped of lead.
The small roof over an internal wall walk which has also been stripped.
The probable route the thieves took to reach the gulley - a sheer climb of around fifteen metres up this "chimney" between chapels.
The value of the lead is not the problem for us now as we try to repair the damage. The thieves will have got no more than £1500 for their efforts, but it will cost at least £15000 and probably more like £20000 to replace it. The problem here is that they have damaged some of the timber understructure and we now have to relay an underfelt and then lay the sheets of lead over this, and it has to be brought up here in large and very heavy rolls, then unrolled and beaten into shape, fastened down and then made water tight - a dangerous procedure which has resulted in more than one fire in such a building as this.
I suppose we should be grateful that they attacked a school eight miles away last night and didn't return for the remainder ....
Posted by The Gray Monk at November 15, 2007 09:17 PM
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Comments
We are having the same problem over here in California with people stealing coper. In fact several have died because of trying to steal live power lines.
Posted by: skipjack at November 17, 2007 03:21 AM
GF thinks this is just tragic, but a sign of the times. There is a total lack of respect. Everything (except hard work and education) is seen as fair game for self-enrichment. The consequences are irrelevant - as one "youf" put it on a recent TV documentary in the South "Hurting the old lady was just collateral damage".
In this case it's the Abbey.
Posted by: Gorse Fox at November 17, 2007 10:27 AM
Sadly the perpetrators of most crimes see their activities as "legitimate" and our bleeding heart brigade blame the rest of us for having things to steal. One of the last jobs I attended in an "operational" capacity in the emergency services invloved an idiot, a shovel, a hacsaw and a high voltage underground cable. The explosion was impressive - the human body isn't designed to conduct 66kVa efficiently.
Pity that our current legislation would probably have the electricity company up in couyrt for manslaughter for failing to prevent the idiot from electrocuting himself.
I am reminded of this incident everytime I read one of Pratchett's references to "a pair of smoking boots" remaining after a wizard has been removed from the promotion chain ....
Posted by: The Gray Monk at November 17, 2007 06:26 PM