Police stations across the country must have seen some strange objects handed over their counters but officers at Green Lane in Eccles in August 1965 got the shock of their life when one young lad turned up.
10-year-old Stephen Atherton, from Calver Avenue in Peel Green, was playing on waste ground near Wheatley’s Coaches and Travel Agency one morning when he spotted a shell on the garage forecourt.
Not knowing what he had, the lad rolled the heavy metal object up and down Liverpool Road.
When he got to the Waggon and Horses pub at New Lane he was spotted by a passerby, who told him to be careful and take it to the police station, reports the Eccles Journal.
It turned out to be an unexploded piece of anti-aircraft ammunition – which was live.
Army bomb disposal experts rushed to the scene once it had been handed over, and took it away to be safely detonated.
Stephen, oblivious of how close he may have come to death, told the paper: “I picked up the shell and carried it to Green Lane, but I dropped it three or four times because it was heavy.
“The policeman behind the counter told me it was an anti-aircraft shell.”
Police launched an enquiry and a search was carried out at Wheatley’s garage for further ammunition. The officers were no doubt horrified what they found there.
A company employee of the company told the police that a number of what they believed to be harmless empty anti-aircraft shells were left on the garage forecourt about two years before.
They added, rather ominously, that the shells had been used as wheel supports for coaches under repair, and also for a spot of weight-lifting!
Finally he casually mentioned: “There may still be a few lying about, if we find them them we will have to move them.”
The army bomb disposal experts were hurriedly called in and confirmed each of the shells were indeed live.
Can you imagine the explosion that would have occurred if one of the mechanics at the garage had hit one with a hammer or dropped one to the floor while weight training?
I think we can safely assume there would have been a large crater where Wheatley’s Garage stood in 1965.
Young Stephen is presumably still alive today – if any readers know him please ask him to contact tonyflynn@salfordonline.com.
