Shropshire Star

Bomb squad detonates shell found at Oswestry building site

Bomb squad officers have detonated a world war two bomb shell which was unearthed on a building site in Oswestry.

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Construction workers found the shell while digging on the site in Park Hall

Police were called to the scene after construction workers found the shell while digging on the site off Artillery Road, in Park Hall, at around 1pm on Tuesday.

Tools were downed and the site was shut, as officers waiting for EOD officers to arrive.

The officers came from Hereford, arriving at the scene at around 6.53pm.

Police were called to the scene

The device was X-rayed by officers, before being taken to an area in Bagley, near Ellesmere, where it was detonated.

Andrew Jones, project manager on developers Chartland Homes, said a specialist has now been called to the site to survey the area where the item was found.

Some work has resumed on the site, however the area where the device was found is not being worked on, and no excavation work is taking place until the survey is completed.

Mr Jones said: “We were about to start work on further plots and to dig down when the device was spotted in the bucket of a digger.

“The people on the site weren’t too alarmed and the foreman rung me, and then we rung the police and the bomb squad came to deal with it.

“We were told it was a live and well 18 pound shell basically, and it was taken to an open space in Bagley to be detonated.

“We closed the site on Tuesday and part of it has remained closed, and we need to get a specialist to survey the site.

“We won’t be carrying out excavations or anything like that.”

A number of homes are being built on the former Park Hall army camp site that was closed in the mid 1970s.

It had previously been a base for infantry training and the Royal Artillery Junior Leaders base.

Mr Jones said the incident shouldn’t push back the build too much, and he hopes there are no more unexpected discoveries.

He added: “It should have been cleared when the MOD left the site. We knew there was a possibility something might crop up, but a very small chance.

“We’re hoping for no new finds, because we don’t want to have that situation for health and safety reasons.

“But at the moment we will no way put a digger in the area until the site is safe.”