St Bartholomew's Chapel in Rochester, is one of Kent's oldest churches and in recent years has been transformed into a gym.
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00:00It's one of the oldest churches in Kent, but after standing for more than 900 years,
00:05a gym at St Bartholomew's Chapel has been left in pieces after its stained glass windows were
00:11shattered during a break-in earlier this week. Turned into a workout space in 2017,
00:16the building hosts martial arts classes several times a week.
00:20The owner says he's been left shocked by what's happened.
00:23Unfortunately, I get here to start teaching another day and I've got a lot of really old
00:29windows in here and unfortunately some people broke in here trying to do an urn of some kind
00:35and they broke some of the oldest windows in the UK. Horrible. Yeah, I don't know if they
00:41took some sweaty gloves, but mainly the damages to the building. Being that that window is maybe
00:47700 years old, I don't know what to do. I've covered it, bought it, obviously done everything,
00:54but now it's talk to the right people with the right qualifications hopefully.
00:59Now these stained glass windows in the building just up there are said to be one of the oldest
01:03in the country. What Christopher wasn't expecting when he came in ready to coach
01:08was to see it completely smashed. He's not sure what the next steps are,
01:12so he's collected some pieces of glass and put them in this box for now.
01:16But it's not just Christopher who's felt the impact, it's those that attend the gym too.
01:20I feel sad about the society we are living in. We are very free soul people, we forgive to
01:28everyone, we accept everyone, so that's the way. We just hope this never happens again.
01:34Although this building is now used as a hub for fitness,
01:37it's one that holds cultural significance to many here in Rochester.
01:40I mean it's massively important, it was listed in 1952 I think, so it's been recognised as
01:49quite an iconic building for a long period of time. That's a real shame that that's been damaged.
01:54It's sad, it's sad that somebody would target a monument like that, a building like that.
01:59Kent police said they were called to a church just before half past one on Thursday to a report that
02:04a business premises on Gandalf Road had been broken into overnight, and they say enquiries
02:10are ongoing. But while the break-in was not a knockout blow to Christopher's business,
02:14a piece of Kent's history has taken a bigger hit. Mahima Abedin for KMTV in Rochester.