Missing ceremonial spade is found in loft

Nov 13 2009 by Neil McKay, The Journal

A THIRTEEN-YEAR mystery has been solved by police when they discovered an ornamental spade and ceremonial casket hidden in the loft of the home of a former town clerk, magistrate and police authority member.

In the casket are the remains of the first sod dug up on June 28, 1948 when development began on the site of Aycliffe New Town in County Durham.

The spade – full size with a silver plaque fastened to the metal section – was used by Coun William Neal Davis OBE vice chairman of the Aycliffe Development Corporation to cut the sod.

Both spade and casket went missing in 1996.

The late John Derek Farquhar, the former head of Great Aycliffe Town Council, a magistrate and a member of Durham Police Authority, was arrested and questioned about their disappearance in 1996 but no proceedings were taken against him.

He was dismissed from his £40,000-a-year job by Great Aycliffe Town Council in December 1996 - three months before he was due to retire – amid allegations of gross misconduct. He died, aged 67, in July 2005. Det Sgt Sean Jackson said the spade and casket were discovered on Wednesday in the loft of Mr Farquhar’s former home, Ivy Cottage in Houghton-le-Side, a hamlet on the outskirts of Darlington.

Police had carried out a search during the course of an unrelated investigation which resulted in Mr Farquhar’s son being arrested and later released on police bail. In 1997 The Journal reported how Mr Farquhar had been suspended just days after his wife Norma died of cancer.

As well as being accused of stealing the ornamental spade, other allegations against him include stealing a generator and greenhouse, and failing to tell councillors that he was a magistrate who sat on the bench at Darlington.

Mr Farquhar told The Journal at the time: “I have nothing whatsoever to hide. I am very bitter at the treatment meted out to me by Aycliffe councillors.

“They came to my wife’s funeral in October and suspended me a few days later. I nursed my wife towards the end of her life, feeding her morphine every four hours.

“It was a very distressing time for me, yet the council has heaped misery upon misery on top.”

He added: “I have been accused of stealing an ornamental spade, which is absolute nonsense. The last time I saw it was when I took it to a primary school to give a talk to the children on the origins of their town. I used to joke that I would take it with me to dig the garden when I retired, but that’s all it ever was, a joke.”