King James 1st ed turns up in Wales: "Well, yes, it is a little embarrassing to misplace such a large item for so long, but it was a rather large, Narnia-sized cupboard..."

A vicar clearing out a cupboard at his church found a forgotten first edition King James Bible dating back to 1611.

There are believed to be fewer than 200 such Bibles still in existence.

The Rev Dr Jason Bray stumbled upon it as he was taking stock at St Giles Parish Church in Wrexham town centre.

He said: "We basically found it when we were going through the cupboards.

"We didn't know it was a first edition, but we sent photographs to the National Library of Wales and they confirmed that it was, dating back to 1611.

"It has been authenticated, and as far as we know, has always been here."

He added: "King James wanted everybody to use the same Bible and have it put in all the churches. What he was trying to do was create some sort of uniformity."

The Bible is an important find for the church as it is one of just a few copies of the first edition of the authorised Bible, which set guidelines not just for Christian worship in the English language, but also for the English language itself.

It was printed in London by Robert Barker, printers to King James I, who commissioned the Bible's translation at Hampton Court in 1604...