Wooler children’s playground reopens after 177 bombs removed

Jo Lonsdale

North East and Cumbria Research

BBC Steven Parkinson stands in the middle of the playground in Scotts Park, holds a long rake in one hand and wears a yellow safety helmet and a yellow hi-vis jacket about 40 years old. Behind there are game equipment items closed by temporary metal fences. — Steven Parkinson revealed 177 bombs in Scotts Park

For decades, generations have experienced an explosion around a Northumberland park and the playground, always unaware of a world war cache buried underneath. How did the devices get there and why didn’t anyone know?

In January, Steven Parkinson began to establish new equipment in the Scotts Park in Wooler, a town surrounded by Rolling Cheviot Hills.

While digging, his eye caught something “a little suspicious”.

“It was quite shocked because it certainly looked like a bomb, but we didn’t know if it was alive or not,” he remembers a small cartilage.

Excavations of the first two days of Brimstone should be excavated.

Mark Mather a playground is completely excavated by a large number of soil heaps and metal fences all over the site. Only one swing remains standing, digging in front of a man. — Excavations of the first two days of Brimstone should be excavated.

Steven’s company Wooler Parish Council Clerk Kerren Rodgers contacted, but the finding was equally surprising to the authority.

“Dealing with a suspicious bomb in a playground is not something they cover in the handbook of the clerk,” he says with a sarcastic smile, “But we immediately sealed the site.”

“It was almost exciting.

“I went to the site, and it certainly seemed like a bomb, but at this point, no one had any idea what we would find.”

An explosive ammunition disposal team came from Catterick Garrison and confirmed that there was a bomb from the Second World War, but the renewal continued the next day, thinking that it was an isolated finding.

Until another device appears.

Kerren Rodgers did not know any company guidelines to instruct the bombing of the bomb.

The town clerk Kerren Rodgers stands in front of the playground. He smiles and wears a green fleece on a Lilak hill. Behind the temporary security fences and a wooden building like a hut with a much larger and longer sharp roof. A slide, swing and climbing area is far in front of a wooded area. — Kerren Rodgers did not know any company guidelines to instruct the bombing of the bomb.

As in any building work, finding evidence of past life and instability is not rare, especially in city parks.

Dallan Tan from the Play Industries Association, “vintage whiskey bottles, railway travers, prickly wire, sex toys and weapons found,” he said.

Today, companies will usually check whether there is “any military or industrial activity on the site”.

They would also do tests and CAT (cable avoidance tool) scans, but when the park was first installed in the 1980s, “health and safety standards would be very different”.

“I don’t think anyone would be accused, they were really unlucky.”

Dallan Tan can list a number of interesting findings in Playparks, but in the bombs

Dallan Tan Tan Tan is a man with a clean -haired clean -shaved and broadly smiling smiling man in his 30s. It stands in front of a road and you can see a new playground on the beater — Dallan Tan can list a number of interesting findings in Playparks, but in the bombs

In Wooler, it was decided to call Brimstone, one of a handful of companies specialized in war -time in the UK.

Since its foundation in 2016, its staff has released more than 200,000 products from the sites in the UK, so the assistant director Adam Tanner says he learned that “not to be surprised by anything in this business”.

Brimstone started with “Sensitive Hand Excavation” around the first pit and found 90 more application bombs used to train and drill the bombardment crew and pilots for a two -day period.

They weren’t alive, but they carried a accusation.

The man said, “What we noticed is that they are equally placed and stacked in order.” Says. “Carefully and deliberately made clear.”

Hand -type detectors were used to scan the park and a large amount of scrap metal was removed

It has a large amount of waste scrap metal, including metal ring white plastic containers, pipes, horse shoes and metal rings. — Hand -type detectors were used to scan the park and a large amount of scrap metal was removed

Brimstone would spend three more weeks to produce a large amount of scrap metal with a hand -type detector to review the entire site and with a total of 177 bombs.

A theory was the burial of Bombs, a British voluntary military organization established to defend the potential German occupation, by the home guards.

However, Sture, who takes the Glendale Local History Association, believes that normal soldiers may be the work of the Greek.

“This was a really important field of education for the army and well defended,” he says.

He continued: “Only 2,000 military personnel in Milfield, north of Wooler.”

Local historian Alan Sture says that Wooler is well defended by a pill box and an important field of education for the army.

Alan Sture is a man wearing brown pants with blue jackets in their 60s. A pill box stands next to a concrete hexagonal defense structure in which men can hide and shoot from the 2nd World War. There are some moded houses behind. — Local historian Alan Sture says that Wooler is well defended by a pill box and an important field of education for the army.

The area is confident that there is an Ordnance store on the field during the war, and with the delivery of ammunition and material from Alnwick to Cornhill railway line.

Short runway and warehouse buildings can be seen in 1948 aircraft photographs and described in archive interviews with Mattie Fairnington and Maurice Hardy, young during the war.

Wooler’s 1948 image shows military buildings close to where Playpark was built later

In 1948, Wooler, who was shot with a house and street patchwork, provided a black and white air image. On the left, two cylindrical buildings are taken into the circle. — Wooler’s 1948 image shows military buildings close to where Playpark was built later

In the 1981 records of the Glendale Local History Association, the couple discusses the memories of “Unity and going unity” and “an Ordnance store” at Scotts Park.

“Now you know the part of the playground,” Maurice Hardy says. “They were all turned to fence.”

“There were always a lot of heavy things coming.”

More evidence of the military use of the site came from the researchers at Brimstone, who defines prefabricated metal structures known as Nissan Huts.

Raf Milfield has almost no traces left, but in the 1940s, 2,000 men and women were stored there

William Hartnett away from the hills and trees in the foreground with a large grass width of a remote rural area with a large grass width — Raf Milfield has almost no traces left, but in the 1940s, 2,000 men and women were stored there

The weapons had to be eliminated during the conflict, stocked in large quantities and then thrown into the sea.

David Alexander, Professor of Emergency Planning and Management at London College London, said in 1945 that “millions of tons of unwanted ammunition” and “no health and safety”, he said in 1945.

In the post -war depletion period, as Prof Alexander explained: “Let’s just get rid of it ‘would be.

“I mean, the bombs were going for six years.”

Historian Colin Durward says that there is still a large amount of ammunition buried in the country

Colin Durward is a man standing in a museum that holds a second World War of World War II in his 60s. He has gray hair and mustache and wears a brown jacket. — Historian Colin Durward says that there is still a large amount of ammunition buried in the country

Colin Durward, who runs Blyth Battery, a series of war -time defense structures on the Northumberland coast, says he was “not surprised at all when he hears the bombs buried in Wooler.

There are many practical bombs excavated in the district.

“Some former soldiers were telling us stories about what they buried at the end of the war, or he says.

“Things like 3 -inch mortar that no one wants, and thousands of, probably millions, ammunition tour.

“Only tons of stuck on the ground.”