A member of the public has exhumed a WW2 unexploded grenade near Chiseldon, Wiltshire during an afternoon walk. Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) engineers attended the scene and destroyed the item in a controlled explosion.

EOD teams will not transport live grenades where possible. Instead, they will destroy items of this size on local open ground.

Grenade
The internal workings of a mills bomb; the most common british wwii-era grenade

Why was this grenade where it was?

The number of soldiers in England swelled greatly with the influx of allied armies during WWI and WWII. In response, the British War Office requisitioned public land throughout the UK. The armed forces then used this additional land for training and accommodation.


During WW2, Chiseldon Army Camp was enlarged to house American army units. Live grenade range training occurred at the camp and therefore it is not surprising that UXO contamination of this sort has been encountered. Decades of post-WWII agricultural ploughing can exhume even fairly deeply buried UXO.

Identifying UXO risks on your site

Unexploded ammunition finds, such as this grenade, highlight the hazardous legacy of historic army camps.  The only way to ensure the greatest chance of identifying historic military activity is by commissioning a Brimstone Stage 1 Preliminary UXO Risk Assessment.

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