A 900-year-old church has been left in a sticky situation after £100 worth of jam was stolen from its fundraising table.

Alongside inscribed pens, the fruity spreads had been left in St Thomas the Apostle Church Harty, in Leysdown, for visitors to buy in aid of the historic building’s upkeep.

Church warden Sue Hopper, has been left saddened by the “petty” crime which has left the Grade-II listed without any products to sell.

The 74-year-old said: “We sell jam and pens at the church in order to raise funds to look after the building.

“It is left on a table and there are two collection boxes that we trust people to donate into. The homemade preserve and the pens, which have the church’s name printed on them both cost £3.

“On a day between Friday, May 19, to Saturday, May 27, around 25 jars of jam and 30 pens were stolen, about £165 worth of products.

“I can’t do anything about it as there is no hard evidence. All I know is that when I came to do a wedding blessing on May 27 the table was just bare.

“The church is open every day from dawn til dusk and as we have so many visitors it is impossible to keep track of everyone.

“However, one of Harty’s neighbours claimed they saw two men in the church acting suspiciously.”

Following the theft only four jars of marmalade and three pens were left on the table.

Sue added: “It’s ridiculous because the pens have the church’s name on them, I don’t know how they would sell them on to make money.

“But I guess they could remove the labels from the jam and resell that.

“It is just so petty and upsetting. At first I was angry, but that wasn’t very Christian of me, so I thought instead that the people who took the pens and jams needed them. I feel sorry for them.”

Sue who has worked at the church for more than 30 years says nothing like this has ever happened before.

She said: “It’s not destroyed my faith in humankind because if it did the criminals would win.

“However, so many lovely people have offered to donate money to make up our losses because we haven’t got anything left to sell.

“I do have to see the funny side of it though, they obviously didn’t like marmalade as that is all that was left!”

This isn’t the first time that the church’s jam-selling business has been targeted.

In 2020 the 11th-century church was covered in the preserve by vandals.

This wasn’t the only damage caused during the vandalism.

Speaking at the time Sue said: “As you walked in there was an absolute mountain of jam on the floor. They had gone down the aisles putting jam here, there and everywhere.

"When you got to the altar there were cigarette butts on the floor, a beer can and a screwdriver."

She said “massive” cigarette burns were also found on the carpet and another carpet had been ruined with candle wax.

The vandals also attacked the Lady Chapel, a section which was locked, and destroyed a flower decoration.