Silver worth more than £500,000 was stolen from churches last year as thieves took to plundering religious artefacts rather than roof lead.

Criminals smashed stained-glass windows and forced open heavy oak doors with angle grinders to break into churches across the country. In some cases they used explosives to blow open safes.

In August silver items worth an estimated £90,000 – including a bishop’s hooked staff known as a crosier – were stolen from Sherborne Abbey in Dorset. The Rector, the Rev Martin Lee, believes that thieves had ‘cased the joint’ beforehand.

The 12th century Holy Trinity in Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, had a silver plate, chalices and other sacred items stolen in April.

The Church of England’s insurer Ecclesiastical has urged clergy to install CCTV cameras and burglar alarms. 

It said that while churches ‘have long been targeted by thieves stripping copper and lead from their roofs’, criminals are now instead targeting ‘priceless historical and religious artefacts’.

The price of silver has risen in recent years, data from the Royal Mint shows, which may explain the ‘worrying new trend’.

Helen Richards, of Ecclesiastical, said: ‘Many of the stolen items are irreplaceable.’

Over £90,000 worth of silver items were stolen from Sherborne Abbey in Dorset last August

A priest serving communion from a silver cup – the price of silver has risen in recent years, data from the Royal Mint shows, which may explain the ‘worrying new trend’