It has been reported recently in a police appeal and by the BBC that the churchyard at Thundridge Old Church was visited by a group of men with spades and metal detectors and some minor damage observed.

The whole churchyard is located within a medieval moated enclosure that is designated as a scheduled monument. Scheduled monuments are nationally important archaeological sites with special legal protection to try and prevent damage or disturbance so that the history they contain is preserved for future generations. Scheduled monuments are commonly, but not exclusively, sites with archaeology mainly under the ground such as barrows, ruined abbeys, castles, and hill forts. This is a different and separate protection to the Grade II* listing that also applies to the tower as a building.

It is a criminal offence to use a metal detector or disturb the ground or anything on it such as walls and gravestones, on a scheduled monument without Scheduled Monument Consent that can only be granted by the Secretary of State. TOCAG successfully applied for this permission with the support of Historic England in 2025 when dealing with the infilled material within the tower.  

The Old Church, partially due to its remote location, has a history of vandalism that has over the years caused a tremendous loss of its history and beauty that can never be recovered. Even casual, thoughtless and low level vandalism continues to make it less likely that the site can be brought back to life and preserved.

TOCAG, with a very limited budget and group of volunteers, monitor the site and report every occurrence of antisocial behaviour to the police as rural heritage crime – 5 reports in the last month alone. It is disheartening, depressing and a drain on limited time and money that could be going to more positive work.  To quote a phrase ‘This is why we cannot have nice things’

We will continue to try and spread the message that this is a place that is cared about by many and means something historically, which makes it worth a little simple respect. It is unlikely that the kind of people who are do this are reading this, but if you are, or you know someone who does – please reconsider. Visit and enjoy, but at least do no harm.  

If you want to help save, improve, and preserve Thundridge Old Church, consider donating to TOCAG through our GoFundMe appeal https://www.gofundme.com/f/thundridge-old-church-action-group

While we try and progress the huge multi year challenge of making the tower safe, secure, accessible and used again, TOCAG can use all donations to carry out the most urgent repairs, enhance site security to limit damage and research and share its history as widely as possible.

References:

The Tower Grade II* listing https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1077953

The Moated enclosure scheduled monument https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1012268