Road and canal in Hopwood closed after 'ordnance' discovered Emily Collis - 3h ago

[Alan de Enfield]

 

 

Road and canal in Hopwood closed after 'ordnance' discovered (msn.com)

 

 

 

 

Lea End Lane in Hopwood© Google Maps

A road was closed in Worcestershire following the discovery of military material. Police confirmed that 'some ordnance' had been found off Lea End Lane in Hopwood on Sunday afternoon, August 28.

Lea End Lane was cordoned off in what was described as a 'police incident'. Traffic was stopped from accessing the road in both directions between the A441 Birmingham Road and Wast Hills Lane.

The canal road bridge and the canal itself were also closed as of 3.45pm. The closure was said to be affecting traffic heading into Hopwood.

Lea End Lane in Hopwood© Google Maps

 

[Heartland]

It seems the ordnance was a hand grenade and it was blown up by the Army later.

 

How it got there might be something to ponder.

 

 

 

[Peanut]

Probably left over from the Second World War.  The Home Guard had catches of weapons concealed in all sorts of places.  A crate of grenades was discovered by Kew Bridge by some school children in the seventies. When I met them, one had a grenade in his hands.  The police were informed, no mobile phones then.  Those may have fallen off a barge.

[ditchcrawler]

Me and a mate found one at Filby Broad near the bridge, the police turned up in the black car, took the grenade and put it in a box in the boot. That was the last we heard about it.

[Wanderer Vagabond]

1 hour ago, ditchcrawler said:

Me and a mate found one at Filby Broad near the bridge, the police turned up in the black car, took the grenade and put it in a box in the boot. That was the last we heard about it.

What, the black car?

[robtheplod]

10 hours ago, Wanderer Vagabond said:

What, the black car?

its well known black cars can take a blast better than other colours.....

[mrsmelly]

On 01/09/2022 at 22:52, Peanut said:

Probably left over from the Second World War.  The Home Guard had catches of weapons concealed in all sorts of places.  A crate of grenades was discovered by Kew Bridge by some school children in the seventies. When I met them, one had a grenade in his hands.  The police were informed, no mobile phones then.  Those may have fallen off a barge.

Agreed. Those of us old enough will recall fairly often in the 50s and 60s and indeed 70s news reports of bombs being discovered, dropped by Germany usualy during ww2. In 69/70 I attended Boulevard Nautical college in Hull, and the surrounding old terraced streets, derelict still, were prime areas for the discovery of the odd uxb as they were being dismantled.

Edited September 3, 2022 by mrsmelly

[Grassman]

Last year when we were going through the T&M 'Heartbreak Hill' Locks, at one of them some magnet fishermen had fetched out a hand grenade and placed it carefully by the towpath hedge.  The police were just arriving as we were about to leave the lock but thankfully they allowed us to continue before closing the navigation and towpath. Later that day we met up with some boaters who'd been behind us and they had been held up for 3 hours while the bomb disposal people dealt with it.

[Nightwatch]

1 hour ago, Grassman said:

Last year when we were going through the T&M 'Heartbreak Hill' Locks, at one of them some magnet fishermen had fetched out a hand grenade and placed it carefully by the towpath hedge.  The police were just arriving as we were about to leave the lock but thankfully they allowed us to continue before closing the navigation and towpath. Later that day we met up with some boaters who'd been behind us and they had been held up for 3 hours while the bomb disposal people dealt with it.

I wouldn’t have thought it would three hours to pull a pin!😊

[mrsmelly]

1 minute ago, Nightwatch said:

I wouldn’t have thought it would three hours to pull a pin!😊

Stupid boy.

[Nightwatch]

3 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

Stupid boy.

How did I know that was coming.

[cuthound]

3 hours ago, Nightwatch said:

I wouldn’t have thought it would three hours to pull a pin!😊

 

Perhaps the pin had rusted solid after being in the canal for so long? 🤣

[Wanderer Vagabond]

6 hours ago, mrsmelly said:

Agreed. Those of us old enough will recall fairly often in the 50s and 60s and indeed 70s news reports of bombs being discovered, dropped by Germany usualy during ww2. In 69/70 I attended Boulevard Nautical college in Hull, and the surrounding old terraced streets, derelict still, were prime areas for the discovery of the odd uxb as they were being dismantled.

Last year in Exeter they also found another of those WW2 bombs and dealt with it by way of a 'controlled' explosion (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-56236381). It's a good job the explosion was 'controlled' (watch the video in the link) considering the surrounding damage that it caused, hardly bears thinking about what an uncontrolled explosion would have looked like.

 

Such things alway remind me of the EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal) guys we occasionally had to call out, one of them had got himself a black T-shirt with the motto of," I'm an Ordinance Disposal Officer, if you see me running, do try to keep up" emblazoned across it

[Alan de Enfield]

32 minutes ago, Wanderer Vagabond said:

T-shirt with the motto of," I'm an Ordinance Disposal Officer, if you see me running, do try to keep up"

 

 

 

 

There is a bit of a difference between a bomb and a 'religious rite'.

[gatekrash]

45 minutes ago, Wanderer Vagabond said:

 

Such things alway remind me of the EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal) guys we occasionally had to call out, one of them had got himself a black T-shirt with the motto of," I'm an Ordinance Disposal Officer, if you see me running, do try to keep up" emblazoned across it

Reminds me of the one we got called to where an old WW2 air dropped mine (huge great big thing, like 3 25 gallon oil drums end on end) had been trawled up by a fishing boat and brought in. The EOD guy we called proceeded to dig out some of the explosive using a multi tool and then pulled out a lighter and was about to set fire to it. At which point he looked at us and suddenly said "if I were you it might be worth running behind that warehouse at this point' !

[Opener]

1 hour ago, cuthound said:

 

Perhaps the pin had rusted solid after being in the canal for so long? 🤣

Obviously hadn't been regularly blacked.

[Nightwatch]

20 hours ago, cuthound said:

 

Perhaps the pin had rusted solid after being in the canal for so long? 🤣

Of course. Hadn’t thought of that.😊

[TheBiscuits]

21 hours ago, cuthound said:

 

Perhaps the pin had rusted solid after being in the canal for so long? 🤣

 

The usual advice of heating up rusty metal with a blowtorch and hitting it with two sledgehammers might not be the best idea in this particular case ...

[Opener]

1 hour ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

The usual advice of heating up rusty metal with a blowtorch and hitting it with two sledgehammers might not be the best idea in this particular case ...

Oh, I don't know. Could be quite interesting to watch ....... from a distance 😁.

[ditchcrawler]

Looks as if this Home Guard stuff could be catching Pontesbury unexploded devices 'left behind by Home Guard' - BBC News

[Wanderer Vagabond]

One anecdote from my working days was when a gent came into Brixham Police Station and insisted that he'd just come across a 'landmine' on the coast path near to Coleton Fishacre, As the expendable junior I got sent with him to have a look (no-one else fancied the hike). Now using a small measure of commonsense my view from the outset was that it was unlikely to be a genuine landmine since 1) I don't think any were planted on the coast path, if any were laid, they were probably going to be on the beaches and 2) it was pretty unlikely that it would have been undisturbed by someone treading on  in the 40 years since the end of the war and the mid 80's when I got sent to it.

 

On arrival at the location with the aforementioned gent he showed me a rounded item half buried in the soil. Nearby was a length of discarded rope from a fishing net so I tied it around what could be seen of the item and then from some distance away yanked it out of the ground. What emerged was a rounded base without the ring supports similar to this photo.......

 

........so all it was in reality was an old paraffin camping stove. I could see why he thought it was a landmine though.

[gatekrash]

3 hours ago, Wanderer Vagabond said:

One anecdote from my working days was when a gent came into Brixham Police Station and insisted that he'd just come across a 'landmine' on the coast path near to Coleton Fishacre, As the expendable junior I got sent with him to have a look (no-one else fancied the hike). Now using a small measure of commonsense my view from the outset was that it was unlikely to be a genuine landmine since 1) I don't think any were planted on the coast path, if any were laid, they were probably going to be on the beaches and 2) it was pretty unlikely that it would have been undisturbed by someone treading on  in the 40 years since the end of the war and the mid 80's when I got sent to it.

 

On arrival at the location with the aforementioned gent he showed me a rounded item half buried in the soil. Nearby was a length of discarded rope from a fishing net so I tied it around what could be seen of the item and then from some distance away yanked it out of the ground. What emerged was a rounded base without the ring supports similar to this photo.......

 

........so all it was in reality was an old paraffin camping stove. I could see why he thought it was a landmine though.

We often get called to all sorts of random stuff - fire extinguishers, starter motors, fridge compressors are very common. Once they've been sat in the sea for a while and turned rusty then they can often look "sinister".

 

However one of my favourite jobs was to this one...

 

 

At the old naval gunnery school at HMS Cambridge (now a National Trust site). When EOD turned up they were suitably confused, as it's a 4.7 inch Armour Piercing shell, and was never used on that site, so shouldn't have been there. they reckoned it was probably a training aid that someone had rolled over the cliff as a means of "easy disposal" when the site was being decommissioned.

[David Mack]

On 03/09/2022 at 09:02, mrsmelly said:

Those of us old enough will recall fairly often in the 50s and 60s and indeed 70s news reports of bombs being discovered, dropped by Germany usualy during ww2.

And during the 70s there was the TV drama series Danger UXB about a fictional bomb squad. One of the results of that eries was an increase in the number of people phoning in to report the shell that Uncle Albert had brought back from the war and which had been on the mantle piece ever since. A good few of these extra finds turned out to be still live!

[Peanut]

On 03/09/2022 at 16:02, Wanderer Vagabond said:

" I'm an Ordinance Disposal Officer, if you see me running, do try to keep up"

I was taught, light the fuse, and “walk away, do not run.”  Something to do with tripping over, I believe.

[ditchcrawler]

And more More suspected explosives found at former Shrewsbury barracks - BBC News