Gwynedd grandmother in lucky escape after unearthing LIVE bomb while gardening

A grandmother was stunned to discover a Second World War bomb in her garden wall.

Lesley Smith gently coaxed the “pineapple-shaped” rusting hand grenade from the slate wall in Penrhyndeudraeth – not realising it was still live and called police.

Luckily for her and her neighbours in Pool Street, the plucky 71-year-old did not pull out the pin out of the device – which she was later told by bomb disposal experts had some powder in it which could have led to a very different outcome.

Mrs Smith and husband Robert, 74, a retired pattern maker, only moved into the property last December.

She said: “I found it. It was a hand-grenade in our slate wall. I went to do something in the garden and I looked at the wall and pulled it out. We didn’t know what to do with it and Robert called the police who came very promptly.”

Because it was getting dark, officers told the couple, who discovered the device at around 4pm on Wednesday (April 19) the bomb disposal team would detonate the device during daylight hours and so placed the grenade out of harm’s reach at the top of their garden.

Neighbours were surprised after waking the following day to find the bomb squad outside of their homes.

Mrs Smith, a retired carer, said: “The bomb disposal people saw that a pin was in it and I thought it might explode.

“It was the size of a small round pineapple with ridges. It was very rusty. I would think that it was probably black. It wasn’t heavy. They put it in the back of their vehicle and took it to a beach to explode it.”

The couple only moved to the street in December while the previous owners had lived there for 28 years.

Lesley said: “I have no idea if they knew about the grenade or not. It was a Mills bomb often given to the Home Guard. I don’t want to be picking any more!”

Bomb disposal experts from the Army removed the ordnance from the scene and carried out a controlled explosion on a nearby beach the following morning.