DISMAYED volunteers at a community hall are appealing for help after a historic boundary marker was stolen.

Thieves dug up a 1940s Great Western Railway cast iron marker post from outside St Cleer Memorial Hall.

The marker, dating from the 1940s, was mounted on a piece of GWR bridge rail (the rails used by GWR in the original broad gauge railway), which was also taken.

‘They must have gone to some trouble to take it all,’ said hall trustee Derris Watson.

‘The rail was dug into the ground to quite a depth and it would all weigh a fair bit.

‘It’s very distressing.’

The marker is thought to have been put in place at the rear of the Memorial Hall, in Well Lane, when the GWR sold the land for the memorial hall to be built.

‘These things are collectors’ items,’ said Derris Watson.

‘If somebody knows about it or sees it somewhere, please report it to the Police.’

The theft has been reported to the police, and anybody with information should call the force on 1010 quoting crime reference CR-66069-17.