Bay Snatch in the Old Town: Who Dunnit and Why?
HUGH SULLIVAN
In May this year, Caroline and Nigel Harvey bought a small terrace house in Courthouse Street, which runs between the High Street and The Bourne in the Old Town. The house has no garden but a sizeable back patio, bounded from its neighbours by walls between seven and ten feet high. In the corner of the patio stood a mature multi-stemmed bay tree, around 10 to 12 feet tall, with roots in the soil beneath.
The Harveys were away from Hastings over the weekend of 22-23 June. When they returned, they found that the tree was no longer there. It had been sawn quite neatly at ankle height, and the whole of the trunk stems, branches and leaves had been removed.
They immediately asked their neighbours, tenants of the adjacent property, whether they had noticed anyone taking the tree. The neighbours said they had been out at the time of the incident, and hadn’t heard or seen anything. They had assumed that the Harveys had organised the felling themselves. They appeared equally shocked by the removal of the tree, which poked above their own back yard – they said their little dog had enjoyed its shade.
Caroline checked with the previous owners that they were not involved; also with Hastings Borough Council that no notice had been given for the felling (which would be a legal requirement within the Conservation Area). She then reported the matter in detail to Sussex Police on an online incident form, highlighting the apparent trespass and criminal damage.
POLICE RESPONSE
Within a few hours she received a written response from ‘Jenny, contact officer at the Force Contact, Command and Central Department’ confirming that a crime report file had been opened but continuing:
“I am sorry to hear that you have been a victim of this crime…Based on the information you have provided, this crime report will now be closed as a valid line of enquiry has not been identified. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any new information relating to this closed report. Thank you once again for contacting us. Kind regards.”
Unhappy with this response, Caroline renewed her request for a police investigation. She pointed out that the patio is overlooked by several residences in the upper floors of Wellesley Court, a cul-de-sac comprising several town houses at the rear, and by other neighbouring properties. It would seem impossible for such a substantial tree to have been chain-sawed, then for the whole of its weighty wood to be lifted above the height of the walls and removed, without anyone noticing. The evidence of trampled weeds, substantial sawdust on a shed roof, and a branch of the tree left by a wall indicated that intruders had climbed over this roof from the Wellesley Court cul-desac, felled the tree and passed it back over the roof. The perpetrators could then have exited Wellesley Court onto the High Street.
Caroline asked for the police to make enquiries in this direction, suggesting that witnesses would not appear without being approached. Sussex Police are, however, unmoved. They have told her that the crime has been logged as “criminal damage, without any witnesses or CCTV. There would be no lines of enquiry, so would therefore be closed as per policy.”
Since the police have offered no assistance, Caroline has told HIP the story hoping that its publication may jog evidence from someone who either saw the felling and removal or who may be aware of the wood being traded. Bay wood is not hugely valuable, but has a fine grain and moderate hardness that makes it usable for carving and marquetry or for manufacture of walking sticks.
Is that a clue? Miss Marple, where are you now?
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