Allington Father and Son Discover WWII Grenade While Magnet Fishing
An adventurous father and son find a live WWII grenade while magnet fishing in the River Medway, prompting a police and Army response.
Allington, Aylesford, River Medway, WWII, Grenade, Magnet Fishing
Aylesford: So, get this! A father and son were out magnet fishing and ended up pulling up a live hand grenade from the River Medway. Can you believe it?
Chris Homden and his 10-year-old son Leyton were just having a chill day at Aylesford Bridge when they decided to cast their magnet into the water. They’ve done this a few times before, so they were just hoping to find some cool stuff.
After a bit of fishing, they tossed their muddy finds into a bucket to check out later. Once they got home to Allington, they put everything in the garden and went inside for lunch with the rest of the family.
Later, Chris went out to clean off their treasures. As he wiped one piece of metal, he noticed the classic pineapple shape of a hand grenade. He was like, “Oh wow, this is serious!”
He spotted the initials JPS, which he knew was a famous grenade maker from World War II. They quickly called the police, who then got the Army involved.
Mrs. Homden said they were told to stay inside while the Army handled the situation. The bomb squad came and carefully took the grenade away to detonate it safely in a nearby field.
Leyton, who loves history, was super excited about their find, while Mrs. Homden was just in shock. She joked about how glad she was they didn’t wash their finds inside the house because of the muddy smell.
Chris was pretty chill about the whole thing, saying it wouldn’t stop him from magnet fishing. He laughed, saying his friends were telling him he should be grateful he didn’t blow up!
He mentioned that usually, they just find old bits of boats or horseshoes, so this was a wild change of pace. The Army confirmed that the grenade was still live, which is pretty scary!
Mrs. Homden hasn’t banned them from magnet fishing, but she did say if they ever find something like that again, they should leave it where it is. They just moved into their home six months ago, and she’s not looking to redo the garden anytime soon!
Fun fact: The Mills hand grenade was first used by the British Army back in 1915 and was around until 1972. It’s believed they made over 75 million of them! They were designed to explode and send shrapnel flying, which could be dangerous for quite a distance.
So, who knew magnet fishing could lead to such an adventure? Just goes to show, you never know what you might pull up from the depths!