UK: They thought it's a garden ornament, but was bomb
When Sian and Jeffrey Edwards moved into their Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire home in the United Kingdom in 1982, a shell was already there. The Welsh couple had been keeping it as a garden ornament since then. Little did they know that they were maintaining a real bomb all this while. Furthermore, they were shocked when a bomb disposal team detonated it recently.
The couple thought it was a dummy bomb
The missile is believed to date back to the late 19th century. However, the Edwards thought that this shell outside them was a "dummy" bomb with no charge. Sian even mentioned how after gardening, she used to bang her trowel against the bomb to remove soil. They were shattered when a police officer identified the bomb and alerted the Ministry of Defence, recently.
It was a live bomb with little charge
The bomb disposal squad arrived the very next day to assess the bomb. The Ministry of Defence confirmed the bomb and stated that the device was live with very little charge. It was determined to be a 29-kilogram (64-pound) naval projectile. After testing, it was moved to a closed quarry in Walwyn's Castle, buried with five tonnes of sand, and detonated.
The couple bid an emotional farewell to the bomb
The couple compared letting go of the bomb to saying goodbye to an "old friend." "We didn't sleep a wink that night," Edwards told Sky News. "We've lived in this house for 41 years, have known it all these years, and I told the bomb squad 'If you evacuate the street the wife and I are not leaving our home - we're staying here.'"
Brief history of the bomb
Edwards shared the story told by the Morris family, previous owners of their house, about a shell found by their relative over a century ago. Edwards claimed Royal Navy warships would practice hitting targets at a nearby bay. Local deliveryman Pop Morris found the shell one day and brought it home in his horse-drawn cart. Years later, the Edwards purchased the house.
