Town's churchyard hit by vandalism a second time

A church minister has expressed feeling "frustrated and sad" after her churchyard was vandalised for the second time in less than a year.

Hertfordshire Police is investigating reports of criminal damage at St Mary's Church in Baldock, which occurred between the evening of 10 March and the following morning.

Last summer, the church hall windows and several gravestones were smashed by vandals.

Rector Rev Phillipa Maddox said the damaged historical headstones were "lost for ever and that's very sad and tragic".

A memorial cross gravestone within the church's graveyard appears to have been pushed over, causing it to smash in the latest attack.

"This is a space that's used by the community, that the community loves," Rev Maddox added.

"A lot of people like to walk through the churchyard and to appreciate the stones that are here.

"People lived in this place for hundreds and hundreds of years and to have these memorials to those people damaged and gone forever is just tragic," she added.

The damaged gravestones are all more than 150 years old, and tracing descendants and plot owners to ask them to repair their property had been an "impossible" task, she said.

The Baldock community had rallied round since the vandalism in July 2024, showing support through fundraising to repair £25,000 worth of damage to the church hall.

Labour councillor for Baldock West, Alistair Willoughby, expressed concern about the ongoing damage and emphasised the importance of preserving the churchyard.

"I don't think we would want to see this space completely closed off. It is so important to the community to be able to see and be in this space," he said.

Mr Willoughby said added security measures such as CCTV might have to be considered to prevent further attacks.

"We don't want people to feel like they walk into the space and they are under scrutiny.

"But for those people who might feel that they want to do some wrongdoing, they should feel like that is not going to be something they get away with and it's not acceptable in Baldock," he added.

No charges have yet been made following last year's criminal damage and police are urging anyone who may have witnessed suspicious activity in the area between 22:00 GMT on Monday 10 March and 08:00 on Tuesday 11 March to report it.

PC Harriet Bender, of the North Herts Intervention Team, said: "Our enquiries are continuing into this incident, and I am asking anyone with information to please come forward."

Rev Maddox said she had kept the broken pieces of gravestone and was considering repurposing them creatively.

"Somebody's had an idea to perhaps create something artistically with the damaged bits of stone," she said.

"We can't repair the graves - but perhaps we can do something with the leftover bits of stone."

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