Another one of the county's churches has been targeted by lead thieves causing thousands of pounds worth of damage.

Lead from the roof of the St Mary The Virgin Church in Northrepps was stolen on Friday night and it is believed that around 35 square meters of the material was taken.

The church was last targeted six years ago and John Richardson, the church fabric officer, said it will take a lot of work to fix the damage to the building which has stood in the village for hundreds of years.

'I'm absolutely gutted and there is nothing nice you can say about it,' he said. 'It is going to take a terrific amount of work to get it all sorted and tied down and with it being a bank holiday weekend it is going to take even longer.'

While the financial impact of the theft is still to be assessed it is expected it has caused thousands of pounds worth of damage.

The church is just one of many which have been targeted by lead thieves in April. A significant amount of lead was stolen from the Church of St George in Rollesby and £15,000 worth of damage was done to St Andrew's Church in Quidenham.

Mr Richardson added: 'Churches are easy targets but there is nothing we can really do about it.'

This newspaper and its sister publications have a campaign called 'Stop The Roof Raiders' which aims to raise awareness of this region-wide issue.