A HORTICULTURE apprentice has unearthed more than 20 live rounds of bullets from the Second World War in a vegetable patch in Warwickshire.
Scott Thomas, from Coventry, was demonstrating his trench skills, as part of an assessment through Warwickshire College Group, when he discovered the rifle ammunition in the soil.
He immediately flagged his discovery to his assessor before making the area safe and contacting the police.
It is believed the bullets had been left on the site by American troops who used the area in Little Compton as a shooting range when stationed there during the war.
The 31-year-old said: “It was my first task of the day and as I was making a small part of the trench I uncovered these bullets and we realised straight away that they were still live.
“Luckily I was just using a spade, so the force wouldn’t have set them off but it’s amazing they hadn’t been found before. The area has been regularly rotivated for years and I had actually worked on the area myself earlier in the year.
“Horticulturists don’t really get trained in these sorts of things, so it was just a case of using common sense, cordoning the area off and calling the police.
“We restarted the assessment and I passed which was fantastic. It had been strange completing my apprenticeship already during covid 19 but this was certainly another unexpected surprise.”
Matt Handy, the industrial training manager at Pershore College where Scott trained, added: “It’s certainly unusual for anything like this to happen in the workplace, let alone as part of someone’s final assessment.
“Scott has been a great learner during his apprenticeship and showed fantastic initiative to secure the area when he uncovered the bullets.
“Our students have been fantastic this year completing their apprenticeships during lockdown, embracing the new learning delivery in what has been a difficult period.”
