Collection tins and donations box stolen from St Botolph's Church

The Stump’s twitter account put out the appeal, in which it tagged organisations including The Standard, which said: “We have had two Poppy collection tins stolen, one RAFA collection tin stolen and this beautiful and very large donations box.

“The money is replaceable - but this fantastic historic box with so much sentimental value is not.

“Please please can we have it back!”

It is understood parts of the donation box date back to the 1600s, close to the era in which John Cotton spent at the church.

Speaking directly to The Standard, Revd Alyson Buxton, Team Rector repeated the point: ‘We have had two Royal British Legion Poppy collection tins stolen, one Royal Airforce Association collection tin stolen and this beautiful and very large donations box.

“The money is replaceable - but this fantastic historic box with so much sentimental value is not.

“Please please can we have it back, someone out there must know where it is!

“This is upsetting for the Church and also for the town.”

Lincolnshire Police has confirmed it is investigating two incidents reported to it by the Church.

The first made on Friday at 12.15pm when the large donation box was first stolen along with one Poppy Appeal tin.

The second report was made at around 3pm today (Monday), after the two further tins went missing.

A police spokesman said a major concern with such a large item was that it might have been left somewhere.

Anyone who may have seen anything is asked to call the non-emergency number 101 quoting incident 235 of October 30, or 160 of October 27.