19th-century British naval shell used as garden garnish is confiscated, detonated

A pair of homeowners in Milford Haven, Wales, are without a weapon shell that had decorated their garden after police said it had to be exploded for safety reasons.

The shell was taken to a local quarry Thursday, guarded overnight and blown up safely Friday, the Milford Haven and Neyland Police wrote in a Facebook post.

Examination after the detonation found that the shell came from a British warship between 1880 and 1890, according to Sky News. The bomb weighed 64 pounds, the U.K. Ministry of Defence told the BBC.

Jeffrey Edwards, 77, had thought the shell was inert with no charge and that it had been used as a dummy for exercises done before World War I, he explained to Sky News.

Sian Edwards, his wife, used to bang her gardening trowel on the shell to shake off loose earth.

“There was still a little bit of life in the [shell]. They couldn’t leave it here just in case it decided to blow,” Mr. Edwards told ITV.

Mr. Edwards, who has lived in the house for 41 years and has lived on the same street for 74 years, was prepared to stay even if ordered to evacuate.

Police found that the shell’s charge was light enough to be moved away without the need to clear the area.

While the shell had served as decoration for the Edwards for decades, it was first brought to the house by its previous owners, the Morris family. One of the family’s members found the shell more than a century ago.

“Pop Morris, who went around delivering lemonade, was going down to Broad Haven with his horse and cart and found the shell. … He plonked it upright in the front courtyard, and that’s where it remained,” Mr. Edwards explained to the BBC.