British Waterways’ winter works project on the Grand Union’s Aylesbury Arm at Marsworth had to be halted recently when seven unexploded World War II bombs were discovered in the canal.

The bombs were exposed when the waterway was drained during lock gate replacement works. A bomb disposal team was quickly called to the scene and confirmed that the bombs were live. They were carefully taken from the canal to a nearby field and after a tense few hours, the bombs were safely deactivated.uk.boats.com

BW’s Waterways Supervisor, Keith Gregory said: “It was a shock to find not just one, but seven of these highly volatile devices in the canal. The Aylesbury Arm is been drained and dredged as part of our annual winter maintenance project, so this was completely unexpected. We’re not sure how they got into the waterway, but the canal was used for transporting munitions during the Second World War so it’s possible they were lost rather than dropped here.”

Until they were interrupted by the bomb scare, British Waterways’ team were working on Lock Five on the Aylesbury Arm as part of a £50m programme of works to help maintain the nation’s 2,200 mile, 200 year-old canal and river network and ensure it is preserved for future generations to enjoy. BW is even running a series of ‘Behind-the-scenes’ Tours of canal worksites this winter, where members of the public can see what’s going on on their local waterway, meet engineers, construction teams and heritage specialists, see how canal infrastructure works and find out about the future of Britain’s waterways. If you want to get involved, a list of events can be found at British Waterways.