Mid Sussex Times - Tuesday 04 June 1935

HOUSES ENTERED AT CUCKFIELD. UNSUCCESSFUL ALL-NIGHT SEARCH FOR TWO MEN.

The Haywards Heath police, augmented by officers from neighbouring districts, were engaged in a search throughout Wednesday night for two strange men, who had been disturbed while in the bedroom of a house between Butler's Green and Tyler's Green, on the Cuckfield Road.

It appears that Mr. Roger Kirkby, son of Mr. and Mrs. T. Kirkby, of Hilcote, arrived home about ten o'clock that evening, and while downstairs he heard someone moving about in the bedroom. He presumed it was his parents, but they had been away for the day and had not returned home. Evidently the intruders heard Mr. Kirkby, as they scrambled out of the window and dropped from a protruding piece of roof on to the lawn. Mr. Kirkby rushed out in time to see two men escaping across the garden into a field towards the back of Butler's Green House.

The police were immediately informed, and despite the area being surrounded and a thorough search made of Blunt’s Wood, which lies to the north of Hilcote, the two men made their escape.

On Friday morning it was found that a temporarily unoccupied house within a hundred yards of Hilcote had been ransacked either on Wednesday or Thursday night.

A man who attends the garden of Beech Tree Cottage, the residence of Mrs. Addis, discovered an entry had been gained by forcing a kitchen window. Mrs. Addis was away in Scotland, but it was known that the house was all right on Wednesday afternoon, when a woman called to forward letters to Mrs. Addis. Practically every room in the house had been ransacked, but whether anything is missing will not be known until Mrs. Addis returns. She has been informed by the police of the occurrence.