Sedgefield villagers are angry that a clock at the former Winterton Hospital site might have been sold to a foreign buyer.

The psychiatric hospital has been demolished to make way for a housing development.

Several people made requests for the clock, which was formerly housed in a tower at the hospital, to be re-sited as a memorial, possibly at the new Sedgefield Community Hospital.

But the clock is no longer on the site, and there are rumours that it has been sold to an American buyer.

Councillor Roger Clubley, chairman of Sedgefield Town Council's community development committee, said: "It was a request made by the town council and other members of the community, including people who worked at Winterton.

"But we believe it was sold through the demolition contractor and is already in the United States, so despite the request, it has gone."

He said: "I would like it back, if possible, because I would have thought it was possible to incorporate it in the design of the new community hospital.

"But we have raised this many times in the past and it has come to nothing, so we are not expecting it to come back."

A spokesman for NHS Estates said: "The clock was sold when the land and buildings were sold and it would have been up to the person who acquired them to dispose of as they thought necessary."

Developer Miller Homes said it knew nothing about the sale of the clock.