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BBC News
7 days ago
- General
- BBC News
Wooler children's playground reopens after 177 bombs removed
For decades, generations of children have had a blast tearing round a Northumberland park and playground, all the while oblivious to a cache of World War Two bombs buried beneath them. How did the devices get there and why did no-one know?Steven Parkinson had just begun work in January installing new equipment at Scotts Park in Wooler, a town encircled by the rolling Cheviot he was digging, his eye caught something in the ground that was "a bit suspicious"."It was quite a shock because it definitely looked like a bomb, but we didn't know if it was live or anything," he remembers with a small chuckle. Steven's company got in touch with the clerk of Wooler Parish Council, Kerren Rodgers, but the find was equally baffling to the authority."Dealing with a suspected bomb in a playground is not exactly something they cover in the clerk's manual," she says with a wry smile, "but we sealed off the site straight away."Wooler councillor Mark Mather recalls: "It was almost exciting."I went along to the site and it definitely looked like a bomb, but obviously at that point nobody had any idea of the extent of what we were going to find." Listen on BBC Sounds: How a Northumberland playground gave up its WW2 secrets An Explosive Ordnance Disposal team arrived from Catterick Garrison and confirmed it was indeed a bomb from World War Two but, thinking it was an isolated find, renovations resumed the next another device surfaced. As with any building work, finding evidence of past life and indiscretions is not uncommon, especially in town Tan, from the Association of Play Industries, says he has found "vintage whisky bottles, railway sleepers, barbed wire, sex toys and a gun, but never bombs" while installing play today would usually check if there had been "any military or industrial activities on the site" he says. They would also do dig tests and CAT (Cable Avoidance Tool) scans, but in the 1980s, when the park was first installed, "health and safety standards would have been very different"."I don't think anyone is to blame, they were just really, really unlucky." In Wooler, the decision was taken to call in Brimstone, one of a handful of companies in the UK which specialises in the removal of wartime it was founded in 2016 its staff have removed more than 200,000 items from sites across the UK, so associate director Adam Tanner says he has learnt "not to be surprised by anything in this job". Brimstone began with "delicate hand digging" around the initial pit and, over a two-day period, found a further 90 practice bombs which were used to train and drill bomber crews and pilots. They were not live, but did carry a charge. "What we noticed is that they were uniformly placed and stacked in rows," Adam says. "It was clearly done carefully and deliberately." Brimstone was to spend a further three weeks at the playpark, using a handheld detector to survey the whole site and uncovering a huge amount of scrap metal alongside a final total of 177 bombs. One theory was the bombs had been buried by the Home Guard, a British volunteer military organisation set up to defend against potential German invasion. But Alan Sture, from Glendale Local History Society, believes it could have been the work of regular soldiers. "This was a really important training area for the military and well defended," he says."There were 2,000 military personnel stationed at RAF Milfield north of Wooler alone." Alan is also sure there was an ordnance depot on the site during the war, with deliveries of munitions and supplies arriving via a spur from the Alnwick to Cornhill railway short stretch of track and the depot buildings are visible in a 1948 aerial photograph and are described in archive interviews with locals Mattie Fairnington and Maurice Hardy who were teenagers during the war. In the 1981 recordings made by Glendale Local History Society the pair discuss their memories of "loads of troops coming and going" and "an ordnance depot" on Scotts Park. "You know the part that's the playground now," Maurice Hardy says. "That was all fenced off.""There was a lot of heavy stuff always coming in," Mattie Fairnington adds. Further evidence of military use of the site came from researchers at Brimstone who identified wartime prefabricated metal structures known as Nissan huts. Weapons were stockpiled in huge quantities during the conflict and then had to be disposed of, with much just dumped in the Alexander, professor of emergency planning and management at University College London, says there was "millions of tonnes of unwanted ordnance all round the world" and "health and safety just didn't exist" in a period of post-war exhaustion, as Prof Alexander explains: "It would just have been 'let's get rid of it'."I mean, bombs had been going off for six years." Colin Durward, who runs Blyth Battery, a set of wartime defensive structures on the Northumberland coast, says he "wasn't surprised at all" when he heard about the bombs buried in museum has many practice bombs dug up across the county. "Some of the old soldiers used to tell us stories of what they buried at the end of the war," he says."Things like a 3-inch mortar nobody wanted and thousands, probably millions, of rounds of ammunition."There was just tonnes of it stuck in the ground." The park reopens later and, for councillor Mark Mather, born and bred in Wooler, it is a "huge relief". "This was my local playpark, I was one of the kids running around on top of those bombs, just nine inches below my feet. "It's been such an emotional roller-coaster."I don't think we'll ever find out for sure who put them there, or why, but I'm just so glad they're no longer down there." Follow BBC North East on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Yahoo
Unexploded WW2 bombs found under playground in England
STORY: :: Dozens of unexploded WW2 practice bombs are found under a playground in Northern England :: Wooler Parish Council :: February 11, 2025 :: Wooler, England :: File Reuters was able to independently verify the location of the photos and video by the nearby shopfront and park equipment, which matched street view imagery of the area and original file metadata. The dates of most of the material were also confirmed by the original file metadata. A representative from the local council also confirmed the date of the photo showing the bombs to Reuters. The surveying and excavation work in the area was confirmed to be taking place in Scotts Park in Wooler, Northumberland by the press release from the Wooler Parish Council. The council initiated a two-day survey of the area at first, but "it soon became apparent that the scale of the problem was far greater than anyone had anticipated," the press release said. In total, over 160 practice bombs were recovered.
USA Today
11-02-2025
- General
- USA Today
It looked like a normal children's playground in England. But underneath? 175 WWII bombs
It looked like a normal children's playground in England. But underneath? 175 WWII bombs The chance discovery occurred in mid-January as officials began construction on a playground in Wooler, a small town in Northumberland, England near the Scotland border. Show Caption Hide Caption D-Day veterans receive hero's welcome in France Dozens of World War II veterans were honored during a ceremony in France to mark 80 years since D-Day. For years, scores of unexploded practice bombs dating to World War II lay buried beneath the feet of playing children in northern England. What's more, the 175 or so bombs likely would have remained undisturbed for years to come were it not for a project to renovate the playground where they were recently unearthed. The chance discovery occurred in mid-January as officials began construction on a playground in Wooler, a small town in Northumberland, England near the Scotland border. A suspicious package found Jan. 14 near the site turned out to be a nonexplosive practice bomb used for training, prompting further investigation – and more bombs to be uncovered, according to multiple reports. Once a second practice bomb was found the next day, the Wooler Parish Council learned that a full survey of the area would be required before park renovations could continue, both the New York Times and BBC reported. Describing the discoveries as 'unexpected,' the council said in a news release Friday that private bomb disposal company Brimstone Site Investigations were called in to spend two days scouring the site for more explosives. But local officials weren't quite prepared for just how many of the unexploded ordinances were underneath the property. During a two-day survey, contractors unearthed another 155 practice bombs in a 21-square-foot area, officials said. Several reports indicate that the total of uncovered bombs now stands at 175 or more. 'It soon became apparent that the scale of the problem was far greater than anyone had anticipated,' the parish council wrote. About 175 practice bombs unearthed beneath UK playground The bombs were first discovered when a construction project got underway to renovate the Scotts Park playground in Wooler. The first two bombs found were removed by the British Army, the British Ministry of Defense said in a statement to the Times and Washington Post. A full survey of the area was then ordered to clear the park of any more bombs, according to local officials. On the first day of the survey, Jan. 23, Brimstone identified 65 more practice bombs, each weighing 10 pounds, as well as smoke cartridges. The next day, the contractors found another 90 bombs, all of which were safely removed and stored in a designated storage area, the council said. Though the bombs are nonexplosive and used for training, 'they do still carry a charge' and, due to how many there are, need to be removed by specialists, the parish council's release said. "These have been found with their fuse and contents still intact," officials wrote, "and the detonator burster and smoke filling in particular can still be potentially hazardous.' Mark Mather, a county councilor in Wooler, told multiple outlets, including the Times and BBC, that only about a third of the park had been cleared and officials were concerned that more bombs may remain. 'We could still find another pit with more bombs,' Mather told the British broadcaster. "It's quite something to think the children have been playing on bombs." More news: Super Bowl halftime performer 'banned for life' from NFL events after waving flags in protest Wooler may have been training center during WWII It's believed that Wooler had been a training center for the Home Guard, a volunteer citizen militia considered the last line of defense against the Germans during World War II, Mather told several outlets. 'After the war, it looked like they just buried all the ordnance in one of the pits,' Maher told BBC. A sign of World War II's lasting legacy, it's not uncommon to stumble upon unexploded ordnance in Britain – remnants of a conflict that ended nearly 80 years ago. In February 2024, a 1,100-pound World War II bomb was discovered in the garden of a residential property in Plymouth, a city in southwestern England, prompting what the government described as 'one of the largest evacuation operations" since WWII came to an end in Europe. Authorities transported the device through the city before detonating it at sea. Japan wasn't so lucky in October when an unexploded bomb dropped during World War II and subsequently buried at an airport detonated. The explosion damaged a runway and canceled more than 80 flights, but no one was injured. Playground construction to resume once site deemed safe Wooler Parish Council, with funding from the Northumberland County Council, plans to contract Brimstone to continue the survey for another two weeks. Officials hope that the site will be cleared by then, allowing construction on the playground to resume in April once the site is deemed safe. Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@
New York Times
11-02-2025
- General
- New York Times
More Than 150 World War II Bombs Found Under Playground in England
More than 150 bombs from World War II have been found under a children's playground in northern England, with concerns that more may remain, officials said. The bombs were discovered as a construction project was underway to renovate the Scotts Park playground in Wooler, a small town in Northumberland, England, that is near the border with Scotland. BBC reported that workers had found a 'suspicious object' on Jan. 14 while digging foundations. It turned out to be a practice bomb, or a nonexplosive bomb that is used for training but can still be harmful. The Wooler Parish Council enlisted Brimstone Site Investigations, a company that specializes in unexploded ordnance, to investigate the site, council officials said in a news release. Brimstone arrived on Jan. 23 for what was supposed to be a two-day survey, 'but it soon became apparent that the scale of the problem was far greater than anyone had anticipated,' the parish council wrote. On the first day, Brimstone identified an additional 65 practice bombs, each weighing 10 pounds, as well as smoke cartridges. On the second day of work at the site, Brimstone recovered an additional 90 practice bombs and safely removed them to a designated storage area, the council wrote. The BBC reported that the Ministry of Defense had ordered a full survey of the site. Though the bombs are practice bombs, 'they do still carry a charge' and require removal by specialists, the parish council's release said, adding, 'These have been found with their fuse and contents still intact — and the detonator burster and smoke filling in particular can still be potentially hazardous.' A spokesperson for the Northumberland County Council called the discovery 'unexpected.' Mark Mather, an official in Wooler, told the BBC that about a third of the park had been cleared and it was possible there were more bombs. 'It's quite something to think the children have been playing on bombs,' Mr. Mather said. Mr. Mather said that Wooler had been a training center for the Home Guard, a volunteer citizen militia considered the last line of defense against the Germans during World War II. 'After the war, it looked like they just buried all the ordnance in one of the pits,' Mr. Mather said. The Ministry of Defense said that a team had visited the site twice in January, the BBC reported, but it did not offer further details. The Wooler Parish Council said it hoped contractors could resume work in April once the site had been declared safe. Brimstone, the Ministry of Defense, Mr. Mather, the Wooler Parish Council and the Northumberland County Council did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
More than 170 WWII bombs discovered under UK playground
***Video above: A look inside $2.3 million World War II era manor in Upper Arlington*** WOOLER, U.K. (WJW) – More than 170 World War II bombs have reportedly been discovered underneath a children's playground in England over the past month. As reported by, the BBC and other news outlets, the first practice bomb was found on Jan. 14 by excavation crews who were making way for an inclusive play area at Scotts Park in Wooler, Northumberland. What Ohio law says about dogs being kept outside during the winter Investigators said the site used to be a military training ground and the bomb, still carrying a charge, was likely buried there after World War II, the BBC reported. On Jan. 23, Brimstone Site Investigations surveyed the area to find out if more bombs were buried under the playground, but according to the Wooler Parish Council, 'it soon became apparent that the scale of the problem was far greater than anyone had anticipated.' On the first day of the search, investigators found 65 more practice bombs with smoke cartridges nearby. The 10-pound bombs were discovered 'with their fuse and contents still intact,' the council said. Investigators carefully recovered the explosives and took them to a safe storage area. An additional 90 practice bombs were found and recovered on the second day of the search, the council said. The Wooler Parish Council said the work couldn't be completed within the two-day survey, pointing out that 'further deployment would be necessary.' West Park Elementary School in Ravenna to close permanently As reported by the BBC, a total of 176 bombs have been recovered from the playground site, as of Sunday, Feb. 9. 'It's quite something to think the children have been playing on bombs and it's been a really challenging situation,' Councillor Mark Mather told the BBC. The investigation is expected to continue through at least mid-February, the BBC reported. The Wooler Parish Council announced in December that Scotts Park is closed to the public for renovations. The park was expected to reopen for Easter 2025. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
