Police are trying to trace the owner of an unusual truncheon which is thought to have been taken during a burglary.

Officers recovered the distinctive black baton with Hamsey Parish written in gold lettering on the side, when they arrested a man in connection with two other burglaries.

Despite extensive searches of the lost and stolen property records, no one could find any trace of the truncheon's last owner.

Detective Constable Graham Bannatyne, of Haywards Heath CID, said: "It is a Hamsey Parish police truncheon. I recovered this in the property of a chap I arrested for burglary.

"I have done property searches and I can't find any record of it. It is so alien to the person arrested - it isn't anything to do with him at all.

"It is quite an unusual item. A lot of people have truncheons but to actually have it with Hamsey Parish on it makes it a bit different.

"It looks like it is made from ebony and could be quite old. I have been a police officer for 18 years and they certainly weren't issuing truncheons like that when I began.

"Someone may have been a village policeman 20 or 30 years ago and the village might have given it to them as a reward for services."

It is thought the truncheon may be of sentimental value to someone and could date back to the Fifties.