Family discovered three live grenades on day out at the beach

The bomb disposal squad were called after a family discovered three live hand grenades on an Essex beach on Saturday. Amanda Lockey almost trod on one of the seventy-year-old grenades as she was walking across the mud with her husband Bob at Dovercourt as the tide went out.



Mrs Lockey spent the day at the beach with 13 of her family, including her two daughters, aged 10 and five. "I shouted up to everyone to say there's a grenade and no one believed me," she said. "Then my husband looked and we found two more.





"We couldn't believe it. I'd say I was a few feet away from it when I saw the first one. I almost trod on it. I had been in the sea and was wary of standing on jellyfish and stuff like that. That's why I was looking down and noticed it."


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Captain Nick Mathieson, from the Colchester section of The Royal Logistic Corps 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Regiment, said the grenades were Second World War vintage No 36 Mills bombs. "Blowing the grenades up in situ was the safest thing to do as old ammunition can be quite unstable," he said. "They were in very good condition and looked like they had been placed on the beach rather than washed up from the sea."