1940s bombshell found in West Midlands garden turned into beer cooler after spoiling barbecue

A 1940s bombshell removed by explosives experts from a garden in Herefordshire will be used as a beer cooler by the homeowner after it spoiled his barbecue plans.

Ross Miller was mowing his lawn on Saturday morning in preparation for a group of friends visiting when he discovered the 25lb (11kg) bomb casing at the bottom of his garden in Putley.

Mr Miller’s family moved into their 1950s home in August 2024 and he said the previous owners had told them there was something metallic at the bottom of the garden, which they believed to be a pump or part of the water supply.

“I went over with the mower and it exposed something metallic,” the 48-year-old software engineer told the PA news agency.

“I had a quick look at it, brushed it and thought ‘this doesn’t look like a pump’.

“There’s a percussion cap in the middle – what looks like would be on the end of a bullet… and it said 1940 at the bottom.”

Because his nine-year-old daughter, Hannah, was stood beside him and feeling “the last thing we want is for anything to explode”, Mr Miller called the emergency services.

After spending 30 minutes on hold with 101, he dialled 999 and West Mercia Police told him to stay away from the wartime discovery and send them the pictures he had taken.

At around 1.30pm, after Mr Miller told his visitors to “stay away”, police set a 100-metre cordon around the shell and closed his street.

The cordon was soon taken down, but the family was asked to remain inside while an inspection was carried out by an explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) unit, accompanied by an explosives detection dog.

“After about two hours’ waiting around, EOD turned up and said ‘yep it’s a 25-pounder’,” Mr Miller said.

The bomb disposal experts confirmed there was no remaining explosive inside the shell before cleaning it and giving it to Mr Miller as a souvenir.

“I’m going to polish it up and use it as a beer cooler,” Mr Miller said.

The casing is around five inches in diameter and 10 inches tall, so Mr Miller plans to put ice in it and use it to hold bottles of beer, which should prove a popular talking point at the barbecue he has rescheduled for Sunday.

“I had to take the sensible approach and had to call the police,” Mr Miller said.

“Unfortunately, when you find something like that in your garden, you’ve got to do something… but obviously it was a bit of a waste of a day,  in terms of barbecues.”