'Finding a bomb isn't something you do every day'

BBC News

13-04-2025

Adam Makewell and his 14-year-old son Cameron consider themselves river explorers - often spending hours perched by rivers such as the Ure in North Yorkshire just seeing what they can find.The duo, from Ripon, usually uncover relatively mundane items such as mobile phones and maybe even wedding rings lost by people while fishing. If they are lucky, treasures like a Roman tile can be uncovered if they are particularly eagle-eyed.Three weeks ago, on a quiet Saturday morning, they expected to find more of the same as they headed to the Ure to test new lights on their underwater drone. For a while, everything did seem normal, with Cameron finding what he assumed was a propane tank.That was until they realised the "tank" was actually a live 1,100lb (500kg) bomb dating back to World War Two."I was nervous," admits Cameron. "Finding a bomb isn't something you do every day."
Three weeks later, setting up their kit for another morning of underwater exploration, Adam explains that their explosive discovery happened further down the river, close to Bishop Monkton."We just popped out for an hour to try out some new lights on the remotely operated underwater vehicle that I use," he explains. "Cameron got some footage for me so I could look at what the light spread was like. "When he'd finished, I told him to go off and find something interesting. Next thing I knew, Cameron said he'd found something."Unsure of what it was, Adam sent his vehicle into the water to also scout out the object."As soon as I saw the shape of it, especially the front, I knew he'd found a bomb. A rather big bomb at that," he laughs. It was later revealed that rather than just being an empty casing, the bomb actually still contained live explosives. "I was worried about the safety of me and my dad, and for the equipment we'd been using," Cameron says."One thought going through my head was, 'please don't hit the bomb, we don't need another reason for it to explode'."
The pair then quickly removed their exploration equipment from the water and rang Cameron's mum, Rachel. "I don't think she quite believed us, but I eventually managed to convince her we'd found a bomb," Adam says. "Then it was off down to the police station to report it."After the explorers sent over their footage, a Royal Navy crew went down to the site to recover the device. Difficult conditions meant it took several attempts, but on 26 March, a bomb disposal team finally managed to make it safe. "Initially, we thought they would fully detonate it to get rid of it but that would have been a logistical nightmare, with a big exclusion zone of 1.5km," Adam says."It would have been most, if not all, of Bishop Monkton that was evacuated."Instead, Adam says a shaped charge was used to "crack it open" so the explosives could be dealt with.
The days the father-and-son duo usually spend together investigating the river are not so potentially perilous.They say they go out as often as they can, both to have adventures but also to spend quality time together. They started the hobby about four years ago, when Adam was looking for a new gadget to explore underwater during the pandemic. "I've always been interested in what is going on underwater, where you can't see," the dad-of-two says."I used to scuba dive a long time ago, but because of the condition I have I can't scuba dive anymore. "This is the next best thing - and it saves me getting wet, unless I get them stuck."
'Deep clean'
Cameron agrees the shared hobby "means a lot", with the only downside being getting up early on a weekend. "It's great to be out of the house and he's not got his face stuck in his Xbox," Adam laughs."He's certainly not going to forget some of the things he has done. "In years to come, I want him to be able to say, 'I remember doing that with my dad'."Meanwhile, what of the World War Two relic they found that caused such consternation and led to the Royal Navy being called in to make it safe?"They took away what was left of the casing and told me they would deep clean it and x-ray it to check it was safe," Adam explains."Then, we can more than likely get it back to put in a local museum."
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