A PAIR of Bibles up to 200 years old and two feet long have been stolen from a church.
The historic items were taken during a break-in at Abercorn Church in
Abercorn, near South Queensferry.
READ MORE: SNP MP cautioned after taking her children to Westminster committee meeting
The Bibles are thought to date back to the early 19th century and were lent to the church by the Hope family, who own the Hopetoun House stately home and 6,500-acre estate in West Lothian.
The books are about two feet by one foot in size and are around five inches thick. Each is bound with red leather and has distinctive brass plating on the corners.
Constable Andrew Young said: “Both bibles hold considerable value not only in monetary terms but also have historic significance for the local community.
READ MORE: SNP MP cautioned after taking her children to Westminster committee meeting
“We are extremely keen to recover these items and return them to the church as quickly as possible.”
Lord Hopetoun, speaking on behalf of the Hope family, added: “We are very distressed at the theft of these bibles. They have been on loan from my family to Abercorn Kirk for a long time and recently, the Kirk Session of which I am part had reluctantly to take the decision to lock the church after a series of antisocial incidents.
“To be confronted now with the theft of these irreplaceable pulpit bibles is deeply sad.
READ MORE: SNP MP cautioned after taking her children to Westminster committee meeting
“If anyone has any knowledge of their whereabouts, I would urge them to contact the police as they are of huge value to the Abercorn community.”
The bibles were stolen between midday on Sunday July 17 and 2pm on Saturday July 23.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article