THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — these Findon Chronicles were created by Valerie Martin and contain scenes from her home village of Findon,
West Sussex, U.K.    Everyday stories about real people.    In fact a potted history of the village.

MANHUNT AT TOLMARE FARM ASSISTED BY BLOODHOUNDS

Copyright Valerie Martin 2006

Published in the Findon News in August 2006

Revised and published in Sussex Local in November 2010

You may think that nothing much occurred in the Findon area in 1934 but there you would be wrong.  A number of things did occur between the wars.   

What then was the village of Findon like in 1934?  

The publican of the Gun Inn in The Square was Ernest Rowley.   It was around this time that the inn became the headquarters for the Findon Cricket Team.   They used one of the rooms upstairs at the public house for meetings.    

At the other end of the High Street, Arthur Gregory Charman appears to have been the owner and proprietor up until this date of the original Black Horse Inn.   

Building work was also going on at the southern end of the High Street.  Four shops (with living accommodation above) were built in 1934 opposite the Black Horse Inn.   These were to accommodate a fishmonger and greengrocer in one shop..... a butcher..... a hairdresser.... and a café.   It was also at this date that Nepcote was a busy place — the Convent was being built for the Anglican Sisters of Mercy from Worthing.    At The Vale, Brian Vick was training racehorses.

Something else of note happened in the springtime of 1934, and this was a manhunt on our local downland. 

A series of thefts from houses in Worthing had been taking place and one day in May 1934, PC Arthur Jex disturbed Leonard Rowland Hill in the act of stealing from a property.  Quick as a flash the burglar pulled a pistol and shot the police constable in cold blood.  Fortunately, he was only wounded.   Thinking he had killed the police officer Hill fled and took refuge in the Findon countryside.

The police were in uproar following one of their number being shot and pressure was on to find the criminal and Webley & Scott revolvers were issued.     Hill hid for four long days and nights and was holed up in the area all of this time.   He slept rough in a barn and stole food from various houses, including the Scourfield family at Michelgrove (racing stables at that time).    He broke into Lee Farm one night and clothes and food were pilfered. 

The shooting story hit the headlines in England and even a lengthy story appeared in the Time press in the States on Monday, 11th June 1934 beginning with the words.....

Local volunteers scoured the hedges and lanes.   Firemen wearing their brass helmets were mobilized on the hunt.  

The year before the ex-Labour Cabinet Minister, Sir Oswald Mosley, had launched his British Union of Fascists and one of the first branches was at nearby Worthing.  The local leader was Captain Bentinck Budd and he gained considerable publicity when he took it upon himself (he was not asked to do so by the police).....to organise a Fascist search party looking for Hill.   This is how it came about that a army of rather disturbing looking Fascist "blackshirts" were to be seen scouring our woods and fields in 1934.  Photographs of them in the press on their hunt for Hill gave the party a certain amount of publicity at the time.

The local residents were too afraid to venture out of their houses at this point as they were frightened of coming across the gunman.   Tension mounted. 

A local bloodhound breeder, Mrs Michael Sadlier, was asked one night to assist and to bring her bloodhounds to the scene.  She arrived with two hounds, a bitch named Champion Sarah of Barchester and another named Champion Huntsman.   They sensed the tension and excitement at being given a real scent to attend.   The hounds immediately pounded off on the trail.   What a thrill it must have been for Mrs Sadlier to be called in for a chance to do some real tracking..... even if her baying bloodhounds were almost pulling her arms from their sockets.    Up hill and down dale they tracked, through copses and woodland and over meadows.    Dawn broke.   

Eventually, the wanted man was run to earth early in the morning near woods at Patching.    A cordon of policemen was thrown around Myrtle Grove. Knowing he was cornered, Leonard Hill was in a panic and turned his gun on himself (the police claimed this later), and put a bullet in his own head.   There were no inquiries after the event in those days.   It was reported in the press that "he blew his brains out" which was rather an exaggeration. Mrs Sadlier is said to have excitedly exclaimed, "It's just like a film" as she left for home with her hounds looking pleased with themselves.

Commotion broke out after Hill shot himself and George Stanford (the blacksmith at Patching) helped to fetch a nearby gate and this was improvised as a stretcher.   The wounded burglar was taken to Patching Farm barn.    The gunman had not read a newspaper since he went on the run and still thought he was responsible for murdering PC Arthur Jex.    An ambulance was called and he was taken to Worthing Hospital but died before medical assistance could be administered.   It is said that he died in a hospital bed "close to PC Jex".... but I would not like to confirm that, it may be just fanciful journalism!

Back at Patching, the police congratulated themselves on having closed another case.  George and his wife Rhoda entertained many of the policemen to breakfast that morning, and it is said that their forge was full of uniformed officers eating ......and swigging back tea.

Continue if you would like to read....The Mystery of the Bootmaker's Death.

THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon.