A village church is being repeatedly desecrated by satanists breaking in to perform occult ceremonies and scatter the blood of sacrificed animals.

The rituals are causing damage to the centuries-old Grade I-listed site in the Lincolnshire countryside, where witches and devil worshippers have been making their impious pilgrimage.

Residents said that chickens had been brought to rural St Botolph’s Church and had their throats cut as occult offerings.

Pentagrams have been sketched at the site, with rings of candles, and salt formed into magic circles for satanic rites inside the medieval building, while out in the churchyard gravestones have been cracked.

The damage came after sheep and cattle were stabbed to death in the New Forest National Park last year, and daubed with pentagram symbols and the number 666.

Parishioners and conservationists said the popularity of St Botolph’s among fans of dark magic, boosted by its unfounded reputation as the “demon” church, spelled the end for a treasure of British heritage.

The Church of England has said the spiritual integrity of the church, which passed to the Churches Conservation Trust in 1975 and is no longer used for services, remains “stronger than any curse”, and the past piety of worshippers would secure its sanctity.

The Churches Conservation Trust controlling the site fears for the more earthly integrity of the holy building, which is being chipped away by footfall.