Photo: Google Maps / Supplied
A Christchurch primary school is asking the public for help after its historic school bell was stolen at the weekend.
Addington Te Kura Taumatua posted to Facebook asking for any information on the missing bell, saying that it had been ground off its stand situated in the Remembrance Garden.
The bell has been at the school since 1881.
Principal Donna Bilas told Morning Report that a child at the school came to tell her the bell was missing when they went to ring it on Monday morning.
Bilas said the bell is a treasured part of school life.
"The kids all enjoy having their opportunity to ring it to start the day, but it is also a huge part of celebrations and commemorations that we hold here at school."
The school is appealing to the local community in the hope of the retrieving the bell.
"If anyone has seen it, seen someone with it, we just want it back.
"It's our heart, it's our history. We won't ask any questions.
"If you find it, please, please bring it back."
The bell is "about the size of a basketball and very heavy", with Bilas saying that she thought it was made of brass.
The school believed the bell was taken to sell for metal.
"Other schools locally have had brass and copper taken before.
"To actually take the time to come in in the weekend and take this off our tamariki is hugely upsetting."
