A LAVERSTOCK couple have been left “bewildered and dismayed” after a handmade wooden stag’s head was stolen from their home.

Tom Edwards and his wife Julia discovered the carving was missing from its usual spot on the wall above their shed at their home at the weekend.

The shed was also found open but nothing else was stolen.

It is of particular sentimental value to Tom, who spent six weeks carving it. He said: “I feel a strange mix of pride the head and antlers were sufficiently desirable to be stolen, curiosity that someone must have walked somewhere carrying them without feeling sheepish, and disappointed not to see them each time I look at the shed.”

Set into the carving are a pair of deer antlers, which had been naturally shed. It took Tom about a year to find them.

Julia said: “We were both very upset by the theft, my husband especially so. The carved head and its magnificent antlers were a work of art of which he was rightly proud.

They were also the perfect finishing touch to the shed, which he also built.”

Julia added: “Our reaction to discovering the theft was bewilderment and dismay. It’s a really strange thing to steal; though it is of considerable personal and sentimental value to us, it’s unlikely to be of any commercial value.

“It also made me very unhappy to think of someone deliberately coming on to our property with the intention of taking them, quite possibly while we were at home. Our children frequently play in the garden, and it makes me very uneasy to think of an intruder in our garden while they are outside.

“We would dearly like to get the deer’s head and antlers back. My husband is contemplating making a new carving to replace it, but in the light of the theft, we are reluctant to put anything else up.”

The theft is believed to have happened between November 28 and December 4. Anyone with information or who saw anything suspicious in the Church Road area call police on 101.