Loaded gun and live snake mystery in Haywards Heath

Adam Cutts found the snake and what he believes is a Colt at the building on Boltro Road.

The development will form part of the Station Quarter in a building which was once the home of the Middy.

“The guys were stripping out the building and a snake fell on them, it was about four and half feet long,” Adam explained.

“It was a shock. I think it was a constrictor, or a python, we had it dealt with.”

Adam and his team found the pistol behind the building.

He continued: “Someone might have thrown it from a train with the line right next to us, or I have no idea. We found it on a bit of land out the back of the building.”

Adam called the police who removed the pistol from the property.

“We thought it was some kind of Colt,” the developer added.

Mark Dyer, owner of Quality Fruits on The Broadway, said ten to 20 years ago an armed heist of a security van on the A23 near Handcross resulted in a high speed police chase in Haywards Heath.

He witnessed a Capri speeding through The Broadway tailed by police.

Mark said a helicopter was so low police used loud speaker to tell people to get off the pavement, and the car was then chased down Perrymount Road.

He thinks the driver decamped near the station and ran on to the railway line and into the tunnel.

Adam added: “That means they would have run up the lines at the rear of our building and therefore might well have thrown a gun at that point to lose the evidence.”

Years before Adam begun work on the site, it was a school specialising in pupils with social, behavioural and emotional problems.

The head teacher of the school said: “It’s quite remarkable. We left six years ago and have had no contact with the establishment since.

“As far as I am aware there has been no activity there until the last two or three months.

“It’s a very accessible building, we had problems with kids finding their way in and out of the school. Someone may have been using it as a doss hall.”

He agreed the gun may have been thrown from the bordering railway.

“A live snake is not going to stay alive for very long, it’s quite incredible,” he added.

A spokesman for Sussex Police confirmed: “Police were called to a property which was being renovated in Boltro Road, Haywards Heath around 11.40am on Tuesday (October 14) to a gun which had been dug up.

“Firearms officers collected the weapon, a handgun, and it was safely taken away.”

The building on Boltro Road was home to the Mid Sussex Times before it relocated to South Road.

“Charles Clarke was the founder of the Mid Sussex Times, one of the first businesses in Haywards Heath after they set up the railway line,” Adam said.

“We’ve found a plaque and there’s a stencil of C. Clarke in the brickwork.”

Adam’s block will provide 13 ‘high end’ flats, some with roof terraces.

The new homes will be on the market in April.