A CAFE owner who recently transformed an abandoned 175-year-old Welsh Chapel in Sutton Oak says she is "heartbroken" after thieves stole the lead flashing put on the property two days earlier.

The Old Chapel on Lancots Lane opened in February breathing new life into the church which is believed to be the third oldest listed building in St Helens.

As is usually the case with older buildings though, occasionally additional work needs to be carried out.

Due to occasional flooding to the side access of the building, owner Heather Sheikloo forked our £600 to get a builder to put new lead flashing on the property to fix the problem.

However, just days later - on her birthday - she woke up to the sight that the lead had been stolen, and her business's CCTV footage captured them in the act. 

Heather, who moved her business from Orrell to St Helens, said: "It's heartbreaking actually because you invest in your business.

"I'm a mum to a toddler, I own a business and I work hard and there isn't a bottomless pot of money.

"So when there is a problem I put money aside to fix it and finally had it all sorted only for this to happen days later, and I woke up on my birthday to see it too.

"Honestly the thought of forking out to sort it again just makes me crazy, not sure what the choice is though.

"The people in this area have been so praiseful of us opening here, there's a new housing estate and people want more for the area and people to invest in it and I'm happy I've done that but things like this do get you down.

"My staff are also scared to open up and do the prep work needed to keep us running, so I'm further out of pocket as I'm having to pay another member of staff so no one is on their own.

"I love my staff so I don't want them to feel that way, but it's a lot of pressure on a small business, the people who did this are shocking.

"We reported it to police but they were quite dismissive, I get there's more important things but we just got a crime reference, I'm hoping people can get in touch if they recognise those on the videos."

The chapel was funded by the Wesleyan Methodists in 1845 and was partly constructed using cobbles made out of copper slag that were donated by local firm Newton Keates & Co.

In 1893 the Wesleyans moved to new premises and the chapel was handed over to the Welsh community who used it as an undenominational, nonconformist place of worship.

Following The Old Chapel on Instagram via @theoldchapel3