Vandals have thrown stones through the windows of St Cyriac’s Church in Lacock, breaking glass up to 600 years old.

The attack came just weeks after the building was restored by parishioners. Ten windows on the south, east and west sides of the 13th century church were broken, but the public-facing north was unaffected.

It comes weeks after the church spent £40,000 on a restoration and conservation project.

Churchwarden Tony Bruun said: “This is just wanton vandalism. There is a disbelief that anyone could do this. In general Lacock is a lovely community but you always get some elements in any place that are less respectful.”

The attack is believed to have happened late last Thursday evening.

“It was the next morning that the people who open up the church for us found glass everywhere,” said Mr Bruun, a warden at St Cyriac’s for three years.

“One of the villagers, Nancy Newman, volunteered to clean up the glass the next day. We have been cleaning up ever since, but we are still finding shards. We found glass in the area used by our youth groups, which was a worry.”

Mrs Newman, who sits on the parish church council, said: “It took me four hours to clean up the glass. When I saw it I couldn’t really do anything but help out because it was everywhere.”

Church leaders are considering placing mesh over the windows. Mr Bruun said: “The windows will still look fine from inside but obviously it will detract a little from the outside, but what can we do when this sort of thing happens?”

There have been attempts to take the tiles from the roof of nearby St Anne’s Church at Bowden Hill and police are still investigating both incidents.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Wiltshire Police on 0845 408 7000.