The Tan Hill Inn. Photo: Matthew Hatton CC-BY-SA-2.0

The owner of one of England’s highest pubs, visited by countless walkers,  has become the victim of a heinous crime.

A stag party from Leeds is in the frame for the theft of a feather from the Tan Hill Inn, high on the Pennine Way.

The feather starred in a television commercial featuring the late Ted Moult, who dropped the said object next to the pub’s double-glazed window to demonstrate its efficacy as a Pennine gale raged outside.

But now, the feather, which was housed in a display next to a picture of Mr Moult, has gone missing from the hostelry, 528m (1,732ft) up on the northern boundary of the Yorkshire Dales national park, above Arkengarthdale.

Pub owner Tracy Daley told the BBC: “I am gutted. I would say 85 per cent of our new customers at some point mention the advert. It’s a piece of TV history.”

She has offered a reward for the feather’s safe return.

For many years, the pub claimed the title of England’s highest inn, but this was disputed and now the Cat and Fiddle in the Peak District lays claim to the title.

Alfred Wainwright encountered the pub cloaked in thick mist during his 1938 Pennine Journey. Moult, a Derbyshire farmer turned television celebrity, died in 1986. His television advert included the line: “You only fit double glazing once, so fit the best, fit Everest.”