During a routine clearing of the historic stretch at Bobs Island on the River Trent, owners Steve and Leanda Hillier discovered an unexploded WW2 bomb thought to have been in the stretch since 1941.
After the drought this summer, the backwater was in need of some much need maintenance, so Steve waded into the river to remove the various snags and branches that had become stranded in the water. As he was doing so, the silt that had accumulated behind these objects began to disperse which led to the live bomb being uncovered.
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"The fishery has been in my family since 1961, with me and my sister taking over after our mum unfortunately passed away 4 years ago," Leanda told us.
"It is the first time we have ever found anything like this at the fishery, and to begin with, we were completely unaware as to what it was," she added.
"My husband Steve picked it up thinking it was litter and started investigating what it was. I kept telling him to put it down, thankfully it stayed intact as he carefully placed it on the bankside."
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Upon realising what it was they had found, Leanda and Steve called the police who were quick to the scene. Two officers cordoned off the area and remained with the bomb throughout the night until the bomb squad were deployed early the following morning.
"It was quite spectacle and not something we were expecting to see this week. After the bomb squad arrived they carefully relocated the shell to a nearby field where it was detonated, it was quite the explosion too," Leanda said.
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"Speaking to the team onsite, they said it was probably a misdirected shell from the bombing of the nearby Ransome & Marles bearings factory in Newark during WW2, that killed 41 people and left 165 injured during a raid in 1941."
"Despite the bomb, the fishing has been explosive down here this last week too, with anglers catching multiple barbel with some of the bigger specimens showing up, it looks set to be a great autumn for fishing at Bobs Island," Leanda explained
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