THE mystery of a village's missing liberty stone was solved last night after it emerged that a resident had taken it away for safekeeping.

The 4ft stone, which was sunk 2ft into the ground, had been removed earlier this week from the North Yorkshire village of Picton near Yarm.

It had marked the parish boundary for at 150 years and has "Pickton Liberty starts here" carved on one side, and "Pickton Liberty ends here" on the other.

The letter k was dropped from the village's name 150 years ago.

Baffled police, who said it would have taken several people with lifting gear to get it out of the ground, had appealed for information about the apparent theft and issued photographs of the stone.

But yesterday, officers tracked down a villager who had not heard about their appeals for help.

He took it away using a tractor because he feared it was about to be stolen.

A police spokesman said: "It seemed strange that someone should trouble to steal 4ft of very solid stone, and so it proved.

"The villager had seen some young men he did not know gathered round the stone, apparently digging and, in country fashion, took pre-emptive action. He hauled the stone up and out and took it away to a safe place. He took decisive action and may well have saved the stone for the parish.

"The plan now is to put the stone back in position, but suitably secured so we hope that it will mark the parish boundary for at least another 200 years."