THEY are supposed to be the crowning glory of any church - testament to Christian faith in God.

But one North-East diocese is now being forced to remove the stained glass windows from a church and store them in people's homes to save them from vandals.

In a drastic measure to preserve two windows at the unused All Saints Church, at Shildon, County Durham, the Diocese of Durham has applied for listed building consent to remove them.

The panes will be replaced by clear glass or a vandal-proof substance - Vandalite - while the treasured stained glass windows will be rehoused in the homes of two residents of the town.

One of the residents is a descendant of someone commemorated in a window.

All Saints Church has been closed for about two years.

Sedgefield Borough Councillor Gary Huntington said: "We've had problems with young people in the churchyard, pulling stones down, using the area for football, and generally misbehaving.

"My mother's own grave had a figurine of an angel stolen from it. I've been told a lot of figurines from graves are stolen for car boot sales.

"You can sympathise with the church wanting to preserve their windows."

Coun Huntington said the church was closed because of lack of support, but he said he hoped it might reopen one day if the regeneration of Shildon was successful.

The proposal, which has been lodged with Sedgefield Borough Council, has not received any objections from English Heritage, although the Ancient Monuments Society said the windows should be situated in the town's other church or retained in the parish.