Landscaper "lucky" not to be hurt after finding eight grenades in Bristol garden
We've spoken to the man who made the shocking discovery in Henleaze yesterday
Last updated 8th Sep 2022
A Bristol landscaper has told us of the "surreal" moment he found World War One grenades buried in the garden of a Henleaze house.
Henleaze Avenue was shut off by police after the discovery yesterday (September 6), which was first reported at around 11:30am.
The road had to be closed for several hours while an Explosive Ordinance Disposal team or "bomb squad" made the devices safe and thankfully no one was hurt.
But we have heard how that could well have not been the case.
"I was exposing around the back (of the garden) and I found a root right next to the wall," landscape labourer Nick told us.
"So I had to use an electric saw to cut through the root and it was proving to be quite difficult.
"I saw some smoke coming out from the root at some points, I noticed there was something metal in amongst the root as well and I think at one point I saw a couple of sparks so I thought I better avoid that area."
Nick began using a pick to scrape away at the ground instead and unearthed what he said initially looked like the end of a bed frame, but turned out to be a grenade from more than a century ago.
"Someone sent off a photo to a friend and they said it could be something, so then they contacted the police and then they turned up about 15 minutes later."
Two grenades were found by the gardening team before the police were called in, who then went on to find a further six, plus three rounds of used ammunition.
The working theory is that they were part of a stash during the Second World War, for use by the Home Guard or resistance fighters in case of a German invasion, which in the early summer of 1940 seemed very possible.
We may never know for sure though why so many ancient explosives were there.
"There was just a lot of disputing as to whether it was or wasn't an actual grenade," Nick said.
"We weren't touching it or kicking it or anything like that it was just a matter of setting them aside and thinking right, we'll just leave them to a corner for a little while.
"It was actually next to a five gallon thing of petrol as well, or diesel.
"So the police came on the scene and we thought we better move that away."
Despite the discovery, residents on the road we spoke to seemed pretty relaxed about the whole affair.
Louis lives with his parents nearby the house in question.
"It's a bit of excitement," he said.
"The right people are here to deal with it so I trust them with it.
"I'm not worried at all, it's actually just a little bit exciting that there's something going on in the road out of the ordinary."
Nick told us the whole experience was surreal.
"Now I'm just sort of thinking well, we're pretty lucky to be honest that it didn't go a lot worse than it did."
In a statement Avon and Somerset Police told us all the grenades that were found "were successfully disposed of last night".