A PRICELESS prayer book that once belonged to William Wordsworth has been stolen from a Lake District church.

The book was taken from a display cabinet in St Oswald's Parish Church, Grasmere, last week.

Police have now alerted antique dealers around the country to look out for it.

The prayer book, which dates from 1835, was removed from the cabinet after the glass was smashed, and then taken from the church premises.

Church warden Sonia Rickman said that the incident had left her feeling 'sick'.

"I love my church," she said. "It's quite upsetting, really."

Sonia, 73, said that she has been going to St Oswald's for 53 years and has always known the book to be there.

"We think that Wordsworth probably signed it and then donated it to the church," she said. "Nobody has ever touched it before. We've never had any problems.

"There were other books next to it but they never touched those."

Tourists were the first to discover that the book had gone missing, and Sonia immediately went to the church when she was informed to find smashed glass on the floor.

She said that the church has always been open in the day, between the hours of 8.30am and 5.30pm, but the theft means that this may change.

"We might open a bit later and then close it a bit earlier," she said. "We do not really want CCTV but we might have to.

"People like to go in because of Wordsworth," she said. "There's the grave and others bits and bobs. We do not really want to have it closed."

Michael McGregor, the ?director of The Wordsworth Trust, said that it was 'really sad news' that such a rare item had been taken.

"We have a Wordsworth family Bible but not a prayer book, so yes, it's a rare item," he said. "It's just a real shame and we hope that it resurfaces."

He said that because of the new building that the Trust opened in 2005, its collection is well protected thanks to high security levels.

The book was taken between 5.30pm on Tuesday (June 14) and 10.30am on Wednesday (June 15).