Theft from historic farm a '˜damn nuisance'

Robert Moore said that the burglary, which saw criminals make off with around £3,000 worth of farm tools and an old anvil dating from the time when plough horses were still employed on the farm, seems to have involved some preparation on the part of the thieves.

“It’s a damn nuisance,” said Mr Moore, whose family has lived at the historic Mullennan House for over 100 years. ”Everything had been pretty much tidied away as there’s not a lot going on on the farm during the winter and someone seems to have come along with a jemmy and forced the lock on the workshop.”

Mr Moore said it’ll set back preparations for calving, as he’d planned using the stolen tools to make some alterations on the farm, for the 2016 calving season, which is already underway.

“The tools has been tidied away but I was planning to carry out some work in a cattle shed and this will set that back a bit,” he said.

Unfortunately, Mr Moore is pessimistic about the chances of catching the criminals. He said he had little hope of recovering the £3,000 worth of farm tools.

But he pointed out that one of the items was particularly distinctive.

“They took an old style anvil dating from back when they kept horses,” said Mr Moore. “It weighs about 70 or 80 kilos so it’s not easy to move about.”

He added: “The police were very good, they came out and took swabs and so on but you really have little chance of tracing these things once they’re stolen.”