THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com  created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

DANGER — UNEXPLODED BOMB — PLEASE CALL THE POLICE

Copyright Valerie Martin 2002.

Originally printed in the Findon News, December 2002.

One of the glories of the Findon countryside is Cissbury Ring.  The Ring is just to the east of Findon is one of Britain's greatest prehistoric hill forts and contains 270 Neolithic flint mines.   The Ring stands on high downland above the village and offers a broad panorama of the Sussex countryside — and it contains one or two little surprises as well. 

I gleaned the gist of this particular village exclusive story after the event from Detective Inspector Paul Williams.... and then filled in the more down to earth facts from my fellow dog-walkers.

Jill Barnard of Findon Valley was out exercising her Golden Retriever, Sandy on Cissbury Ring on Tuesday, 8th October 2002.   She met up with Sally and Sid Oakes from Findon Valley (with Trixie and Sammy), when at approximately 8.45 a.m. Sandy returned to her proudly carrying a stick with a piece of paper attached with writing in an adult hand.    Jill was even more amazed to read .....

By now the stick and attachment were well chewed and slobbered over by Sandy.  

Sally and Sid's immediate reaction was that the nearby fins of a mortar half exposed in the ground were a hoax.  

Unexploded bombs can be very dangerous. Jill took the note home and promptly telephoned the police because she could not live with the thought that Sandy's find might be dangerous.  

The police wanted her to show them the discovery.   Jill had to cancel an appointment at the vet's surgery and return to the Ring to show a policeman the location of the bomb ..... which was in the centre of the path on the lower ramparts on the north side of the Ring.  I must have walked along that path a hundred times in the past nine years.    At one point on Tuesday it was a possibility that the Ring would be closed.   The policeman anxiously stayed near the suspect bomb to prevent anyone else walking on the ramparts and wisely requested assistance from the operational Bomb Disposal Unit.  

Richard Waller of Goring says that his wife was nearly driven off the road at Long Furlong (A280) by the brightly painted truck of the bomb squad doing 90 miles an hour.    He wondered if these people ever travel at a more legal pace, or is everything they do urgent!

It was not long before their lorry arrived on the scene at the Ring and the offending item was examined.  The UXB turned out to be a 3 in. mortar with six fins.  There were no explosives attached.

Cissbury Ring and the environs are undoubtedly littered with such relics of the war as it was utilised by the army during hostilities.  

As Sid Oakes remarked, "I hope all of this publicity doesn't go to Sandy's head".

In conclusion, it is suspected that the offending mortar was dug from a few centimetres below the soil by a metal detectorist tampering with the ramparts.   Metal detecting is forbidden on Cissbury Ring — and therefore this hapless soul could not report his discovery.   You can imagine this one standing there with his detector and scratching his head and pondering what to do.  Rather than contact the police, he decided to do the next best thing by writing a note for the next person who came along to find!

Vic Oliver (the National Trust warden of Cissbury Ring) has always asked that if anyone sees a metal detectorist on the Ring.... to please take their car registration number and report it to him on 01903 740233.

I will leave the late Tony Hammond of East Preston to have the last word.  I was surprised that he didn't have more to say to me on my website regarding the bomb.  But he afterwards remarked —

THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — was launched by Valerie Martin in January 1999 and will grow to be a historical record of life in Findon, West Sussex, U.K.