DUCKS GO BACK

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 19942, 29 October 1934, Page 11

DUCKS GO BACK

FARMERS RECAPTURE SEVENTY EARLY MORNING COUP About 100 Kentish farmers took part in a raid early one morning a few weeks ago on the Ecclesiastical Commissioners’ farm at West Court, Shepherd’s Well, near Dover. Their object was to seize seventy ducks, which had been removed from Mr R. M. Kedward’s farm at Westwell on the previous day on account of arrears of tithe. The raid was organised at a rendezvous on the Dover Road, outside the Half Way public house. All of the farmers wore black masks, and the password for the night was “Socks. ’ They suspected that they would meet with opposition, and arranged that any inquisitive stranger who could not give the password would be “trussed up.’’ There were thirty private motor-cars, and the raiders set out without lights. Behind the first car was a farm lorry containing twenty of the strongest men, and behind that an empty lorry. The other cars stretched away in a cavalcade covering nearly a quarter of a mile. No moon shone. The night was dark with patches of fog, and as the cars approached the lane to West Court Farm a couple of scouts were sent out to cut the telephone wire. The gate Was locked. So it was taken off its hinges. A cordon was immediately thrown around the farm buildings and cottages, and the leader approached a cottage and knocked. Immediately a little man, about sixty years old, came to the door, clad only in a shirt. He was terrified by the array of masked figures. “I am only a poor man, and I have to get up at three,” he said. "I will do what you want me to.” “Does this farm belong to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and is there a manager?” he was asked. “Yes,” he replied. “Well, take us to him.” The man did as he was bidden, and then he went back under escort to dress.

The farm manager appeared at the bedroom window. “If you are not off, I will blow somebody’s brains out,” he said. He was told that a cordon was round the farm; that the raiders were in possession, and intended to get the ducks. That brought him downstairs. Three of the men seized him and held him. Other men searched the farm and found a bull, a sow, and some farm implements that had also been seized. Then they went to a turkey run and found the ducks. About fifty of them took a duck apiece and put it in the empty lorry. Eventually the seventy were removed. Loud shouts of “Murder!” “Police!” came from the house. It was the manager’s wife, who had seen her husband made captive. The raiders thought it time to depart, and all the cars except three left by devious routes. Those three acted as convoys to the lorry containing the ducks. By a back road the farmers set out for Westwell, not daring to go through Ashford. The noise those ducks made! They were frantic. As the lorry passed through a village the landlord of a public-house thrust his head out of a window in alarm. Some of the farmers stopped to explain the situation to him so that he should not inform the police. Near Westwell the raiders sent a reconnoitring party which reported “all clear,” the lorry was backed to the pond at Beechbrook Farm and the door was opened. With loud quacks the ducks rolled into the pond. They seemed to go mad with delight. As dawn was breaking the farmers made off to their respective homes. The police were soon active. An officer arrived at Beechbrook Farm at about 5.30 a.m. with five constables. He collected the ducks and took them to Ashford Police Station. Meanwhile many farmers in East Kent were invited to make statements to the police. Mr Kedward stated that neither he nor any one on his farm knew anything about the raid. “All I know,” he said, “is that when my men went down at five o’clock they were surprised to see the ducks swimming m the pond again.”