Exeter couple find grenade in garden

A NEWLY-WED couple were shocked to discover a hand grenade in the garden of their new house in Exeter.

Warren and Claire Batty, who married in May, moved into a house in Newcombe Street Gardens, Heavitree, last week.

When Mr Batty, 27, was clearing out the pond he found the grenade.

“I thought it was a large stone at first but when I realised it was a hand grenade I rang the police,” said the removal man.

Mrs Batty, 29, a surgery co-ordinator, said: “I didn’t believe Warren at first. I expected it to be a funny-shaped rock. It was very surreal. It’s not what you expect to find when you’ve just moved in.”

When the police arrived, at around 6pm on Friday, they evacuated the six nearest houses for a couple of hours and sent for the bomb disposal squad from Plymouth.

The police told other neighbours to close their windows and draw the curtains to stop shrapnel if it went off.

Mr Batty went with his wife and in-laws, who live next door, to his parents’ home in the Stoke Hill area of the city.

Mrs Batty’s father, Mike Hawkins, 56, said: “We were in a slight state of shock. We’ve lived here for 25 years and never found anything like that in our garden.”

Mr Batty said: “Our landlord must have built the pond at least seven years ago and the grenade wasn’t there then. It’s a bit of a mystery how it got there.

“I’m scared to dig any more of the garden up. It was a bit of drama but we still like the house.”

Wilfred Bryant, 84, who lives next door but one, moved into his house when it was new, at least 45 years ago. He said the site was a market garden before the houses were built.

He served in the Royal Marines for 11 years before spending 35 years as a postman. He said: “I’ve had experience with that sort of thing so I told the policeman it was a Mills grenade. We used them in the Second World War.

“They had a range of about 60ft and could go off within three to five seconds. I think the chances of it going off were slim but there was always a chance. It brought a bit of excitement to the day.”

The Battys’ other next door neighbour, Nicola Mathewson, 34, lives with her husband and two-year-old daughter and was relieved to hear it was not a large bomb as she had first imagined.

“Our neighbours came round and said we had to evacuate because they had found a bomb,” said Mrs Mathewson. “I thought they were joking but when I realised they were serious we quickly got ourselves together.

“I wasn’t too concerned because I thought if it was going to go off, it would have done when they found it.”