Dog digs up mortar shell

A digging dog caused the evacuation of three Black Country streets after it unearthed a mortar shell in its owner's back garden.

A cordon was set up around 36 homes in Richards Road and Turton Road in Tipton after Joe the terrier made the unusual discovery. Scores of families had to leave their homes to stay with family members or at the Princes End Neighbourhood Office for around three hours yesterday afternoon after the bomb squad was called in to investigate.

But it was elderly neighbour May Clark, who lives next door to where the mortar was found in Richards Road, who first identified the find.

She told Joe's owners, the Elwell family, that she thought the object he had dug up was a mortar shell.

Mrs Clark recognised the shell as it was similar to those which she used to paint when working at Bradley's in Bilston during the war.

She said: "I recognised it because it was similar to the ones which I used to paint the tails of. When the houses were evacuated I went round to my daughter's in the next street."

Owner Pat Elwell said Border Fell Terrier Joe had dug up plenty of objects in the past but nothing as unusual as a mortar shell.

She said: "My dad had come to collect some wood from the garden and we noticed the dog had dug something up which was embedded in the dirt. We were joking that it was a bomb but we never thought it was a mortar shell."

Mrs Elwell said after the dog had found the object, which was close to the surface of the soil, she had gone to the Princes End Neighbourhood Office, run by Sandwell Homes, to ask staff their advice. The office then alerted police who closed the roads and called in the bomb squad.

Householders were asked by officers to evacuate their houses and were offered hot drinks at the housing office while they waited to be let back in to their homes.

Neighbour Ann Roberts, who lives opposite the house where the shell was found, said she had not been able to go back to her house for around three hours.