900 year-old Rochester church's glass windows smashed after break-in.

St Bartholomew's Chapel in Rochester, is one of Kent's oldest churches and in recent years has been transformed into a gym.

Transcript

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.