Squirrels blamed for Gwynedd church's roof damage

Specialists working on the church roof discovered teeth marks in the lead work

A church has had to have its roof repaired after parts of it were nibbled away by squirrels.

Scaffolding was recently erected at St Tegai's Church in Llandygai, Gwynedd, to replace worn out parts of roof lead.

But specialists discovered teeth marks in the lead work, and holes where the grey squirrels had been using the roof to grind down their teeth.

Squirrels, like all rodents, have front teeth that grow constantly, and are worn down by biting on hard surfaces.

The church's roof project architect Geoff Stott, from Paterson Macaulay and Owens, said: "We couldn't believe it at first, but the little devils had been getting on to the roof and chewing the lead work.

"There are grey squirrels in the woods nearby, and it appears they were using overhanging trees close to the building to get on to the church itself."

Lead poisoning

He said they knew it was definitely squirrels to blame as "there were actual nibbly teeth marks on the lead on the church".

"There are a few places where they'd actually made holes in the lead - I just hope that they haven't suffered any lead poisoning because of this," he said.

The squirrel damage was discovered at St Tegai's when scaffolding was recently put up

He said he had not come across problems caused by squirrels until the past three or four years and had seen "similar things elsewhere recently".

As well as the squirrel damage, the lead work on the church roof was generally thought to be in poor condition and some of the parapet walls also needed repairing.

Specialist contractors have been at the church already for about eight months and Mr Stott said there was "still lots of work to be done".

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