A washerwoman has disappeared from her village home because she is fed up with people ogling as she washes her bloomers in public.

The woman in question is a statue which formed part of a restoration project in Rottingdean - until it vanished one night.

Left in her place was a note saying she had booked a voyage on the Titanic to start a new life away from prying eyes.

The life-size Victorian washerwoman vansished a week before she was to feature in the opening of the newly-restored Golden Square.

Residents think it's the work of a serial prankster.

In previous years, the mystery individual, branded the Rottingdean Joker, has put a satellite dish on the roof of a small shelter for ducks in the middle of the village pond and distributed convincing bogus planning notices saying the village windmill was going to be turned into a Chinese restaurant.

He or she has also put up signs saying "No Easter Bunnies", changed notices on the village green saying "No Horses" to "No Reindeer" and, after the village pond was restored, put up signs saying "Quiet Please, Minkswell Toads Mating".

Now it seems the washerwoman is The Joker's latest victim.

The figure was specially sculpted by local artist Janet Leech.

It sat in the window of the restored old wash house happily since the summer, wearing a white dress and brown apron and watching Golden Square restored.

Mysteriously, two weeks ago, a plastic supermarket bag was put over her head.

Now the life-size figure has disappeared completely after her abductors unscrewed the bolts to the wash house and carefully put them back again so as not to arouse suspicion as to how they got in.

The only clue was a written note saying: "I cannot endure this hardship any longer. I have booked a passage on the pride of the White Star Line, I believe it is called the Titantic.

"I am so looking forward to my new life, where I can wash my bloomers away from prying eyes. Goodbye forever."

The abductors have done a little research into the washerwoman's past because, in 1912, when the Titanic sank with the loss of 1,500 lives, the wash room was extremely busy and anybody using it or working there would have liked a break to get away from the grind of village life.

The wash house was in use from 1898 to the early Thirties.

The washerwoman's disappearance was at first treated as a joke.

Rottingdean parish clerk, Jean Talbot said: "We all had a laugh about the note and thought our washerwoman would be returned almost immediately. But now she has been gone for a few days and we are getting worried.

"We want her back for the ceremony to mark the completion of the square on November 9.

"At the end of the day, this is theft. The figure has been admired by many people. I hope she is safely returned."

Notices, headed "Wanted. A Washerwoman", have gone up in shops and pubs around Rottingdean asking for the jokers to return the washerwoman.

The posters have a footnote saying: "Life on the Titantic is not all it is cracked up to be. She is such a treasure she is financially irreplaceable".

They ask anyone who knows the whereabouts of the washerwoman to phone Jean Talbot on 01273 300652.