A BASINGSTOKE couple made a shocking discovery when they unearthed what looked like a bomb in their garden.

Jenny Smith was digging up a patch of earth in her back garden in Oakridge in preparation for a new shed when her fork hit something hard.

The 59-year-old mother-of-two said: “It was underneath where a laburnum had been, where the roots were. There was lots of flint so I didn’t think anything of it and put my fork underneath to leaver it out and couldn’t believe what came up.”

However, she didn’t realise the potential danger, and said: “I picked it up and stupidly, dropped it. It was about 10 inches long and I thought ‘what should we do?’.”

She called her partner Dave Barnes to have a look and they telephoned the police, who requested photos of the object.

The police contact the Ministry of Defence, who sent an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team from the Royal Logistic Corps Bomb Disposal.

Jenny, whose parents moved into the house in Oakridge Road in 1952 a couple of year’s after it was built, said EOD believed the object to be a US training shell from WWII.

She added: “Until we knew it wasn’t dangerous, waiting to find out was a bit scary. The police didn’t know what it was, but didn’t think it was dangerous from the photo. They said it should be contained.”

It remains a mystery how the shell came to be in the couple’s back garden, buried about seven inches down.

Jenny, who works for Hampshire Equipment Service, said: “I know when I was younger there was a remains of an ordnance place in Popley. My mum also used to say that this was the last house that they built, so it might have been dumped there.”

Having been born in the house, she added: “It’s been here all this time and we never knew. We must have been the talk of the neighbourhood, I’m sure there were some curtains twitching!”

An Army spokeswoman said, “We can confirm that the Explosive Ordnance Disposal team from Aldershot were called out to Oakridge Road, Basingstoke on July 21 at the request of Hampshire Constabulary. Upon investigation, the item was found to be a piece of an inert training shell and was removed from site for disposal. At no time was there any danger to the public.”

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