POLICE are appealing for information after 100 square metres of weathered York slabs, valued around £10,000, were stolen from a garden near Alton.

The incident happened overnight between Thursday, January 11, and Friday, January 12, when a large amount of stone paving was taken from a garden of a home in East Worldham.

It is believed the slabs would have been loaded onto a vehicle by several people to enable a theft of this scale.

A number of paving slabs were lifted but left behind which suggests the offenders had stopped loading them once their vehicle was full.

Good quality York stone is valued at about £100 per square metre. These stones were laid in place by the owner’s great-grandmother, who was living there around 1917.

They are beautifully weathered and many have picturesque lichen on them, others some moss. They vary in size from as little as 30cm by 25cm to twice that size.

They are all different, but almost all are rectangular. They have worn over the years so some are no longer flat but are bowed toward the middle. They are typically about four centimetres thick.

Investigating officer PC Stephen Rogerson said: “This is a rare and unusual theft and we suspect the slabs were either stolen for resale or for a landscaping development.

“You may have been offered these stones or seen them advertised for sale. There is sentimental value within these slabs and they are uniquely weathered, so please contact us if you have any information that would assist us in locating them.”

Anyone with information should call the police on 101, quoting reference 44180014286, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.