MILTARY bomb disposal experts were called out to Startforth Park last week after a resident uncovered a detonator while gardening.
The incident was reported to police on Monday afternoon who contacted the Royal Logistic Corps’ bomb disposal team, based at Catterick.
PC David Williamson, from Barnard Castle Police, said: “She was doing some gardening and while digging in the hedge she has found what we believe to be a detonator for a bomb. We have not had a find like that around here before.
“Obviously, we get a lot of shells in the moors, two or three times a year. There was a lot of ordnance taken up there.
“But it is the first time in the 12 years I have been here that we have found anything in Startforth Park.” He added that it may be a remnant from when Deerbolt Young Offenders’ Institution was a military camp.
The camp was used by the army from 1803 to 1972.
The experts safely removed the device from the property.
