Crafters who placed a giant handmade crochet net over the jewel in Royston’s crown – the famous Royse Stone – were left shocked when it went missing on Monday morning.

Anne Walls and Laura Whitford placed the crochet masterpiece which took a week to make over the stone along with matching cosies for nearby bollards at midnight on Sunday, in an act known as yarn bombing.

The netting was still there at 5.30am in the morning when Laura’s husband David went past on his way to work but, by 8.30am, Anne’s husband Ian discovered it had vanished.

Laura said: “We put a few feelers out on Facebook. Today someone said it had been replaced. I can’t believe it. I don’t know who took it down.”

The yarn bomb stunt was performed to raise awareness of Royston Craft Fair, which will start as a monthly event from Saturday.

Laura, who organises the craft fair, said: “It’s really high quality stuff. Everyone always complains there aren’t enough shops in Royston, but at the fair there are more than 30 of them.

“We ran a fair at Christmas and I thought I’d have one in April. It went down so well.”

The fair will be held at the town hall in Melbourn Street from 10am on Saturday.