This week I’m sharing an intriguing puzzle going back 30 years or more. Like last week’s subject it’s a little out of our town – about 4 miles. My winter photo was taken a few years ago just off the old public byway that runs from the Highmoor side of Nettlebed down a hill and through woodland and then out to Bix. I was told that many years ago this was the “main” road from Nettlebed to Bix but now it has been blocked off to vehicles. However, it’s a fine place for walking through Chilterns countryside and with the added advantage of shade from the Beech trees giving welcome cool. Until around a year ago, next to this old road (now a narrow track in many places) was this substantial and heavyweight safe that must have been part of a robbery more than thirty years ago. It had been steadily rusting away all this time and had what was either its top or bottom panel blown out at the time when the contents were stolen. Why has it now disappeared? It would have been very heavy, so machinery would have been necessary to move it. Perhaps the Nettlebed and District Commons cleared it up?
I’ve spent much time trying to find out the circumstances of this incident without success. A serious safe like this must have belonged to an organisation or company somewhere in this area and the thieves would have used explosives to reveal the insides! My question is one that I’ve asked several times before over many years and previously in the local newspaper. Can anyone help with the story behind this old abandoned safe – that’s now curiously been taken from its woodlands resting place?
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