Police have recovered a wheel from a vintage traction engine that was stolen seven months ago.

The owners of a 123-year-old Burrell traction engine were left speechless after discovering one of the front wheels had been taken from their farmyard in Woodchurch, near Ashford, last August.

The vintage farm equipment, which dates from1901, was left forlornly standing on three wheels after the theft.

But officers from the Kent Police Rural Task Force have recovered the wheel from an address in Coxheath near Maidstone.

Police said investigations into the theft were “ongoing.”