Nostalgia: UXB detonated in wartime discovery

Tuesday, 20 April 2021 14:35

By David Jones @DavidJones1943

A Home Guards detachment training in Glossop woods sometimes used live ammunition.

Decades after the end of the Second World War, walkers would often stumble across dangerous remains.

One rambler, in Shire Hill Woods in the 1980s, came across a piece of rusty metal which he thought was an old tin can.

On further examination he saw a couple of what looked like fins sticking out of the ground and suddenly realised it might be a bomb.

He contacted Glossop police station reporting what he had found. Minutes later he was on his way in a police car to the woods at the back of Queens Drive, Glossop.

It turned out to be a kind of training shell used by the Home Guard to provide a bit of war time realism and not knowing if it was still ‘live’ Glossop police contacted the bomb squad.

It turned out to be an unexploded shell which was subsequently surrounded by sand-filled bags and detonated by a controlled explosion. There can’t have been too much explosive in it, as it went off with a muffled bang.

We ran the story in the Chronicle with a warning to anyone walking in woods to be careful, as it may not have been the only weapon of war left behind.

Main image:

DISCOVERY: An unexploded shell was found in Shire Hill Woods.

More from Glossop Chronicle

The signs they are a changin'

It was the end of an era at Whitfield Community Centre this week as the old Derbyshire County Council signage was removed to make way for new ones. Whitfield Together, the group that bought the Centre for the community, is refreshing the Centre's image. Its new logo will soon go up on the front of the building. Gerry Dominey told us, "It seemed like a significant moment when we took the sign down. It was as if we were saying that the Centre is ours now and we can put our paw print on it. And that felt good."
Police clock motorcyclist doing 95mph

Derbyshire Police Safer Neighbourhood Team Officers have recently been out conducting extra speed checks.
New Passenger Assistance Points Installed for Rail Users

New facilities designed to give disabled customers the confidence to travel by train have been installed at dozens of stations across the North of England.
Pétanque players bouled over by new piste

The first pétanque piste in the High Peak is open for business following a £16,000 grant from Tarmac’s Landfill Communities Fund.

Weather

Tue
17°C
Wed
15°C
Thu
18°C
Fri
18°C
Sat
20°C

Nostalgia: UXB detonated in wartime discovery

Read more from the Glossop Chronicle

Share

More from Glossop Chronicle

Weather