'Sinister network' - Concerns raised over crime at Yorkshire heritage sites

The data was obtained under Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to all four of Yorkshire’s police forces, from January 2024 to May this year.

The reality is likely to be far higher as West Yorkshire Police (WYP) refused to respond on the grounds any analysis would take too long to complete.

Sadly, warns the Countryside Alliance, there can be “sinister” networks of organised crime that target vulnerable, and often rural heritage settings.

Mo Metcalf-Fisher is director of external affairs at the think-tank, which runs year-round campaigns about the threat of rural and also heritage crimes.

“They are linked,” he said. “When we talk about rural crime we are talking about something very specific - sheep rustling or quad bike thefts.

“That moves into more organised crime when it’s stealing lead from church roofs. More often than not, sadly, it’s linked to organised crime,” he added. “There’s some cases of opportunistic chancers. Often it’s linked to major networks.”

The FOI looked at nearly 400 records of crime at heritage settings such as places of worship, museums, galleries or archaeological sites, for South and North Yorkshire and Humberside.

It revealed reports of at least two attempted burglaries at museum settings, along with a series of smashed windows and criminal damage.

While much appeared to have been carried out by youths, there were stark findings for one part of the region where a staggering 87 per cent of crime reports were at places of worship.

Police often receive reports of donation boxes going missing or the theft of artifacts which are “irreplaceable”, warned Mr Metcalf-Fisher.

“There does appear to be a very sinister network taking advantage of the vulnerability of these buildings,” he added.

“It is a major challenge. Often these buildings are isolated, they don’t have a huge number of eyes on them through the day. In some cases, there is nobody around.

“We’ve heard of cases of lead theft from a roof, and it’s been weeks before the vicar noticed because it started to rain.”

Any incident, he said, is shocking and horrendous.

Alongside the Countryside Alliance’s own findings, it paints a “very bleak picture”.

The think-tank, with its own FOI analysis focused purely on churches, found some 700 crimes were recorded at religious buildings in Yorkshire last year.

West Yorkshire, for example, saw 445 crimes recorded at places of worship in 2025, including 147 thefts, six lead thefts, and 77 cases of criminal damage.

The onus, said Mr Metcalfe-Fisher, must be on communities stepping up to protect treasured settings.

There was a lot more “joined up thinking” between authorities and police, he added, urging people to report any suspicious activity.

“We have to do everything we can to fight back against criminals,” he said.

“We all have a part to play in protecting these spaces. These items can be irreplaceable.

“A lot of it comes down to people on the ground reporting crimes,” he added. “The key thing is preventing them in the first place.”