Thank you all for your advice. Our guest is alive and well this morning and after opening the box and putting it in the sun for a couple of minutes the snake woke up and, as animartco predicted, attempted an escape so the lid has had to come back down.
After much to-ing and fro-ing I have been directed to the South Essex Wildlife Hospital so I shall be off there soon for the next installment of the tail
.
I am not sure how old it is but it is between one and two feet long (an estimate as I haven't wanted to attmpt it) and no more than a half inch in diameter. My guess is it is quite young. Haven't a clue what sex it is either.