Harwood family heartbroken as 200-year-old garden ornaments stolen

The family noticed the ornaments were missing from Earls Farm on Wednesday and believe they could be put up for sale in the area.

Due to the weight of the lions it would take two people to lift one of them, but no disturbances on the farm were reported.

They are offering a reward of up to £1,000 if anyone can return the lions.

The lions are around two-and-a-half feet long and two-and-a-half feet high.

A family photo showing one of the lions

Karen Yates said: “It’s been a bit of nightmare finding out they’ve been stolen during a stressful time like this.

“They’ve been in my husband’s family for 200 years, at least, so they have a huge sentimental value.

“They’re quite large and it would definitely take two people to lift them as they are very heavy.

“There’s two of them and the sad thing is we’ve been thinking about moving them to the entrance of the cattery we have.

“Whoever took them had to trespass on our land to get them, we’re currently trawling through our CCTV to see if we caught anything on there.

“We noticed they were missing on Wednesday but we think they may have been taken before then.

“There’s not been any disturbances recently, although we have noticed vehicles driving on the farm at night.”

The area of the farm where the terracotta lions were stolen from

The family have decided not to report the incident to the police.

Mrs Yates added: “It’s unnerving to know someone came into our garden and took them.

“My husband is really upset about it as they’ve been in the family for so long, and the farm itself has been in his family for 300 years.

“We can’t just buy replacements.

“There’s still hope we can get them back and people have been great sharing the post on social media.

“Hopefully if anyone sees them for sale anywhere they can be returned to us, we’ll provide a reward for their return - up to £1,000.”