THE British Army was called to a residential street in Cheshire following the discovery of an unexploded wartime bomb.

Explosives experts were called to Thelwall on Wednesday evening to carry out a controlled explosion.

This came after residents Priscilla Spooner and Andrew Walsh unearthed the Second World War device in their garden.

People as far away as Lymm reported hearing a loud bang at around 10pm, with experts ensuring it was safely disposed of.

“I can’t believe it happened, we only moved here three months ago from Latchford to a little bungalow,” Priscilla explained.

“We moved here as it’s relatively quiet and tranquil – without a bomb going off in the garden.

“A lot of work was needed to the house ,and we were working in the garden, which is when we discovered the bomb.

“We rang 999 saying that we had found a bomb and they asked how we knew, but it was definitely a bomb.

“Andrew actually picked it up, but when he realised what it was he was ‘oh God’.”

An officer was sent out to their Prestbury Drive home to assess the find, and it was confirmed that it was definitely a British Second World War practice bomb.

Practice bombs were used by Allied air forces to train pilots and bombardiers. They contained a smoke filling and were no designed to penetrate deeply the ground.

While not as dangerous as an unexploded German device dropped during a real bombing raid, the couple were told by experts that they might have to evacuate.

“It was around 6pm, people had sat down to have their tea, and we had to knock on neighbours’ doors saying we had found a bomb and that they might have to evacuate,” Priscilla continued.

“Because we have a lot of elderly neighbours, I was more concerned about them than having a bomb at the end of our garden, but thankfully, we didn’t need to evacuate.

The unexploded Second World War bomb unearthed in Thelwall

The unexploded Second World War bomb unearthed in Thelwall

“The Army arrived after around 30 or 40 minutes, assessed it and confirmed it was a practice bomb, but that it would need detonating.

“As we have quite a large back garden, they moved the bomb to the end near to the ship canal and covered it with sandbags.

“We had to stay at the front of the house while they carried out the controlled explosion.”

A spokesman for Cheshire Police said: “At around 6.20pm on Wednesday, October 16, police were called to reports that a possible historic explosive device had been found at an address on Prestbury Drive, Warrington.

“Officers attended the scene and a small police cordon was put in place as a precautionary measure.

“Explosive ordnance disposal was also called to the site and, after assessing the item, a decision was taken to move the device to a safe location to conduct a controlled explosion.”