A vicar was left to sweep up the wreckage after vandals shot holes in “priceless” stained-glass windows and smashed a picture of the Virgin Mary and Child.

Canon Brian Stevenson has spoken of his sadness after the attack on St Mary’s Church, West Malling, in which windows more than 100 years old were peppered with holes and a stone tomb, dedicated to the Brett family, was damaged.

One of the windows is thought to have been among the finest ever made by Victorian stained-glass artist Charles Eamer Kempe and often brought admirers to the West Malling church.

The vicar described it, and another by Victorian glass firm Lavers and Barraud, as “priceless”.

He said: “The east window is 150 years old and the nativity one’s just over 100 years old. I couldn’t put a value on them.

“They’re very high quality windows.”

The damage was discovered on Saturday August 2, a little over a month after the church had been targeted by lead thieves.

Mr Stevenson believes the vandals entered the church during the previous week, probably during the daytime, and used a catpult or shot to pepper windows.

“We’re very upset by it” he said, “we feel very vulnerable.”

“We used to keep the church open, but we’re going to keep it shut more often now.”

It’s not the first time vandals and thieves have attacked the church.

In 2001 vandals smashed their way in and set fire to the high altar, and last summer saw the first strike by lead thieves.

Mr Stevenson now plans to keep the church open on a more limited basis, if he can find parishioners to sit inside to guard it at lunch times.

He called on anyone with information to come forward, and hoped the vandals would change their ways, adding: “I hope they realise the damage they’ve done to precious objects”.