Ipswich World War Two museum Clifford Road Tunnels calls bomb squad after grenade donation

Volunteers at a popular World War Two museum in Ipswich were given a shock over the weekend after a grenade was included in a box of donations – which led to a bomb squad being called.

On Saturday, a couple came to Clifford Road Tunnels, a series of air raid shelters beneath Clifford Road Primary School, looking to give away a set of items for display in the museum.

Inside the box was a collection of Second World War-era memorabilia, including a German helmet, shell casings - and what they thought was an inert grenade'.

Wendy Scott, a volunteer at the museum, who was away at work at the time, said a ‘casual text’ from a colleague about the incident ‘sent her blood pressure up’.

She said: “A couple had kindly brought in a donation to the tunnel as they had been laying in a drawer for 50 years and they wanted the items to be seen by others.

“She said one of our volunteers had taken a look at the grenade and felt it was safe.

“I was not reassured by this as the volunteer that looked at the grenade is a badge maker by trade and unfortunately not a bomb disposal expert – and we had no clue if the grenade was potentially dangerous still.”

Volunteers immediately called police to have the grenade checked.

Suffolk Police confirmed it attended an incident at Clifford Road Primary School on Saturday, having been called at 1.48pm.

The grenade was deemed to be empty and taken by disposal teams to be destroyed, with the incident lasting a little under three hours.

The Ministry of Defence has also been approached for details.

Ms Scott said, once officers arrived, they cordoned off the playground, and waited for a bomb disposal team from Colchester to arrive and take a look.

She said the caretaker told her the following day that volunteers stayed with police and that it took some time for disposal teams to survey the grenade.

Ms Scott added: “This incident was quite exciting for the volunteers on duty that day and is not isolated. One of them said that they had previously been gifted other grenades.

“This is the potentially dangerous day in the life for a volunteer at Clifford Road Tunnels.”

Clifford Road Tunnels typically opens once per month – the second weekend – between April and October.

This was the final weekend of the year the museum would welcome customers.