Fig. 1: Window depicting the coronation of the virgin before sustaining damage. By permission of the CCT.
A rare early seventeenth-century window depicting a scene from the Coronation of the Virgin has been broken during a break-in by thieves at the church of St Mary in Shrewsbury.
First estimates suggest that it might cost up to £15,000 to repair the window. The thieves stole just £40. This is the second time the church has been targeted in the past six months. The first time the church was broken into the only damage was to a plain porch window after the offenders were disturbed; this time however, the thieves broke a side window in St Katherine’s chapel to gain access to the vestry.
The Churches Conservation Trust, which cares for St Mary’s, has described the damage as ‘senseless vandalism just to acquire some loose change’. Mr Robert Milton, of the Trust, said the window would be ‘somewhat harder to repair and more expensive primarily because of the colour of the glass’.
The church of St Mary has one of the best collections of stained glass in the UK: see Vidimus 78.
