A church is on the hunt for 22 missing pews that were mistakenly sold to a private buyer.

The historic benches with fine detailing in a 15th century design are from St Michael's, Twerton in Bath and were mistakenly sold after being put in storage.

Now an church court has ruled the incident a 'breach of ecclesiastical law' and have urgedthe church to find them again.

The pews which date back to the mid-1880s were removed from the Grade II listed church in 2017 after St Michael's applied for permission to take the 14 long, six short and two “frontal” pews to make way for carpet.

They remained in storage at an air hanger until 2023.

However, permission to remove the pews had only been given for a year and their absence from the church from 2018 was deemed by the Worshipful Timothy Briden, Chancellor of the diocese of and Wells as 'illegal'.

Despite that he did admit this was due to poor record-keeping rather than any deliberate move by staff to break the rules.

Replacing pews with stackable chairs is now commonplace as large churches with smaller congregations now rent out spaces for other groups to use such as yoga classes and toddler groups.

In a statement from the church council to The Times, Rector Rev Richard White said: “We acknowledge that mistakes were made in the past and are committed to our responsibilities with the utmost diligence and care, in accordance with our faith and the guidance of ecclesiastical authorities.”

Now the ecclesiastical court has ordered ministers at St Michael's to  “use their best endeavours to locate and to recover”.

It's been claimed the pews were sold to a Mr Owen Thomas for £1500, though no one has been able to contact him to verify this.

Church pews are popularly repurposed as domestic furniture and often appear in pubs. Some older examples can also command a lot of money with one dating from the 17th century currently listed for over a thousand pounds.