By Joe Crossley
A magnet fisher was shocked to discover that an object he had been 'whacking with a hammer' was actually a WWI artillery shell.
Raymond Berry, 53, was fishing in the River Medway in Maidstone, Kent, with a friend when he pulled up a peculiar, 10-inch-long shape from the water.
The 53-year-old, who lives in Bexhill near Hastings, explained that as it was so muddy, he began hitting the shell with a hammer, completely unaware that it could explode.
After asking friends on social media who told him it was likely to be a WWI bomb, he and his friend had to wait two hours for police to arrive.
The shell was later removed by a bomb disposal unit.
Berry, who runs the YouTube channel Adventures In Finding Stuff, had travelled to Maidstone last Sunday (13/04).
(Raymond Berry via SWNS)
On his channel, social housing worker Berry also mudlarks - which he learned to do on the River Thames whilst growing up in London.
The pair took up position underneath the A229 bridge near the Travelodge hotel in the Maidstone and dropped their magnets into the water, oblivious as to what they would pull up.
While he had previously found guns, knives, and plenty of coins, the WWI shell was the first explosive Berry had ever uncovered.
“I was pulling out the usual stuff like old bikes and shopping trolleys with a friend," he explained.
"But around 3 pm, up came an object about 10 inches long. It was covered in muck and rust, so I couldn’t tell what it was.
“I left it to the side for around 10 minutes to dry off before I came back to it and tapped it with a little hammer to get the muck off.
“As it was coming off, I realised it was some sort of shell. I searched it and put a post in social media groups to see what it was.
(Raymond Berry via SWNS)
“The consensus was that it was a First World War artillery shell.
"I put it down and phoned the police who told me to stay with it until they arrived.
"We just laughed about it, as just 10 minutes ago I had been whacking it with a hammer.
“It was very exciting and dramatic, and I couldn't believe it happened to me."
However, Berry said he was 'shocked' that it took police around two hours to attend the scene after he'd called them and told them about the shell.
“I thought they would have flown here after I had told them I thought I had found a shell," he added.
(Raymond Berry via SWNS)
“While it was unlikely to explode after sitting in the river for more than a hundred years, it could have gone off.
“Once the cordon was in place, we waited around for another hour or so to see if a bomb disposal unit arrived but they took ages as well so we decided to go home.”
When officers eventually arrived at the scene, they set up a safety cordon next to the river footpath, following safety advice from the Ministry of Defence.
A bomb squad later attended and safely removed the item.
Kent Police were contacted for comment, but would not be drawn on its response time.
