One-ton rock from Chelsea Flower Show garden is stolen

Thieves with an unlikely mix of muscle and horticultural expertise have disappeared with an award-winning 8ft-high rocking weighing one ton.

The 4ft-wide Stonehenge-style monument was part of an exhibit that won a bronze medal at last year's Chelsea Flower Show. It was being stored in a yard owned by Ian Taylor, a garden designer.

It had a yellow and green stained-glass window at its centre and was one of a pair by a pool in Mr Taylor's Mother Earth exhibit, which was designed to create the illusion of walking on water.

Mr Taylor said the thieves would have needed a crane to remove the rock from the Landscape Centre in Milbury Heath, Gloucestershire. "The last thing I expected was someone to have stolen the rock. It's mind- blowing. I think it is in a garden in the area and I reckon the customer will have bought it without knowing it is stolen.''

The second stone has been broken, which Mr Taylor said he thought happened when thieves were trying to remove it.