Gwent Police are appealing for information about a burglary at Wales' oldest baptist chapel - Llanwenarth Baptist Chapel in Govilon.

The incident happened some time between 9pm on Thursday December 4 and 8.30am Friday December 5 where two safes were stolen containing money and documents.

The Deacon, Howard Rendall was called after the cleaning lady and an electrician saw that the door had been broken open, although neither had noticed that anything was missing.

Upon checking the church, Mr Rendall noticed that two safes were missing, one large Victorian safe and another smaller modern safe. They immediately contacted the police at 9.40am, who arrived at the site shortly after.

The safes were eventually found the next day dumped in a stream near Llanelly Hill, with the doors cut off. The safes contained only a very small amount of money and marriage and funeral certificates, and only the money was taken from the safe which Frances Baines, wife of the Rev'd Peter Baines, estimated to be around £20. The rest of the documentation was found in a nearby stream.

Mrs Baines said, "We never leave money in the safes overnight, and our best guess is that whoever did this assumed there would be more of value inside."

She also said that as the safes were extremely heavy and had the doors removed, it looked to them like a professional job.

Both she and Mr Rendall also thought it strange that nothing else of value was taken from the chapel and that no other damage had been done.

Mr Rendall said, "We had piled the furniture in the back room where the safes were the night before as we had a concert in the chapel.

"Upon arriving at the church the next morning, the furniture had been carefully removed from around the safe and put back into the chapel, and the safes had been carefully removed."

Mrs Baines added, "It is rather unusual that the speaker system was carefully placed down next to where the safes were when they removed them. It looks as if they were specifically looking for the safes and expected there to be something of worth inside. This was not the case."

They are currently in the process of drying off the documents left dumped in the ditch, and have said that it doesn't appear that any documents were missing. They are also set to replace the doors that were broken to gain entry into the chapel, and currently have temporary doors provided by Red Builders.

Mr Rendall said, "We would all like to express our sincerest thanks to Red Builders who immediately helped us to secure the building when it was most vulnerable. They were some of the first on site, saw that the building had been broken into and informed us immediately. We are very grateful."

The Neighbourhood Watch has been made aware of the incident and will be closely watching the site, and police are currently looking for information about the burglary.

A spokesperson from Gwent Police said, "Anyone with any information is asked to call Gwent Police on 101 quoting log number 93 05/12/14 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111."

But Mr Rendall was just grateful that more damage was not done. He said, "We have been lucky that nothing of value was taken, and that no other damage was done to the chapel other than the doors.

"We just hope that Gwent Police can have some luck in finding whoever did this."