Bullet cache found under f loorboards at former home of Cambridge spy
A COUPLE renovating the former home of Cambridge spy Donald Maclean were shocked to discover 30 bullets hidden under floorboards in the loft.
Sue Rhule, 53, and her husband Caulton, 56, were aware of the house’s history after buying it last year for more than £800,000.
But Mrs Rhule was still astonished to find the bullets – thought to date back more than 70 years.
Maclean and fellow spy Guy Burgess fled to Russia from the four-bedroom property in Tatsfield, Surrey, in 1951 as police closed in on them.
The Rhules had begun refurbishing the three-storey house – built around 1910 – including the butler’s pantry where the spies’ last meal in england was prepared before their escape. They also accessed the attic which had been left closed for years.
Mrs Rhule ventured up into the loft on Monday and noticed a cut in the wooden flooring. She pulled away a piece of wood and found the bullets in the space below.
She said: ‘I could not believe what I saw. Given the history of the house, I immediately thought was it something Maclean and Burgess had left there if they were involved in an armed attempt to get away.’ The couple informed police of their discovery
Mrs Rhule also found scraps of paper which appeared to have coded writing and drawings.
The mother-of four-said: ‘I did think about the history of the house when I found the bullets. They were well-hidden.’
The property was used by the Canadian air force in the Second World War before being owned by Maclean. The spies – recruited by Russia while at Cambridge university – fled from Tatsfield on May 25, 1951.
It is said when police arrived their meals were still piping hot on plates. They had infiltrated the UK intelligence system and passed information to their Russian spymasters. They both died in Moscow – Burgess aged 52 in 1963 and Maclean aged 69 in 1983.