An historic stained glass window at a village church has been smashed in an attempted burglary.

The damage to the Victorian stained glass window at St Nicolas Church, Witham, was discovered on Sunday afternoon after would-be thieves tried to gain entry to the church.

They failed to get in but returned later after the window, which will cost thousands of pounds to replace, was boarded up.

After taking down the boards and entering the church they pulled the collection box off the wall, but failed to steal any cash as the box was empty.

Michael Robinson, churchwarden for St Nicolas, said: "What was even more mindless was the fact that they returned after we had boarded up the window. We never keep money in the church anyway so they were wasting their time."

Mr Robinson said the church had a window replaced a few months ago.

He added: "That cost us £600 and it was on clear glass so to replace this one will run into thousands."

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