IRREPLACEABLE plates from the White Star Line believed to have been used on Titanic's sister ship Olympic were stolen from a village hall.

The two plates, each worth about £300 and identical to those seen in the blockbusting film Titanic, were stolen from their locked display cabinet in Shawford Village Hall, near Winchester.

For more than 60 years villagers had given little thought to the blue and white plates until in 1990 a sharp-eyed parish councillor noticed they sported a red ensign logo and the words "White Star Line".

They were donated to the village in 1928 by Frederick Blake, a parish councillor who was a former superintendent engineer with White Star.

Compton and Shawford Parish Council decided to sell most of the plates to pay for renovations to the village hall. Many went to collectors of Titanic memorabilia in America.

The chipped and discoloured plates sold for more than £3,000.

However, the council decided to keep two plates on display in the hall - and a special display cabinet was made for them.

For years they hung on the wall of the village hall - until March 4 when it was discovered they had been stolen.

Councillor Jean Millar, of the parish council, said: "We're very upset. It's sad a bit of the history of our parish has been stolen. I would imagine somebody saw them on display and decided they wanted them."

Nothing else was taken from the hall in the theft.

Mrs Millar said some villagers believed the plates were used on Olympic but this cannot be verified.

She said: "Frederick Blake had contacts with the White Star people based in Southampton but we don't know how he acquired the plates."

Parish councillor Nick Campbell-White said: "They were locked in a cabinet with plate glass on it, screwed in with prison screws, but that didn't stop this person. We can't replace those plates."

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