|
Doh.... I was talking to a local bobby hereabouts on my wanderings around the county a few months ago. Seems that large tracts of land around Trawsfynydd was an RA training atrea of some size before and during WW1. Bits are always being found. A shell was found one afternoon and the Bomb Squad called. They got there and dealt with it. They heard some tap tapping noise in the woods and followed the sounds and came across a local attacking another shell with a hammer and chisel trying to get the nose cone off...
|
>>>came across a local attacking another shell with a hammer and chisel trying to get the nose cone off...
ha ha... I said in another thread my desk paperweight is just such an item... wondered where they got them from.
|
Here's one I dug up this evening, during work on our drive:
i151.photobucket.com/albums/s138/Cliffordpope/IMG_4493.jpg
|
Any idea what it is CP? Looks more like a milk churn than a piece of ordnance. But I wouldn't really know.
Don't be tempted to attack it with a big hammer and cold chisel, just in case. We wouldn't want to read about you in that excellent paper the Sun.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Wed 16 Apr 14 at 19:45
|
|
Shell casing. Walk slowly away:)
|
|
A bit of discreet scraping at the sort of rim towards the bottom of the thing might disclose whether it was a copper driving band. If it's steel, that isn't a shell casing. The shape is a bit odd, more like a big cartridge. But as I say, I'm no expert on WW1 heavy ordnance.
|
>> Here's one I dug up this evening, during work on our drive:
>>
>>
>>
>> i151.photobucket.com/albums/s138/Cliffordpope/IMG_4493.jpg
Not a shell casing. That ridge round the base means you couldn't get it into the breech.
|
The photograph doesn't show the scale - it's actually about a foot long.
It's made of cast iron, quite heavy, hollow, but with some kind of obstruction just inside the narrow end. I suspected it's some kind of water pipe or part of a pumping device - there are lots of old iron pipes around the place feeding the original water supply.
I knew it wasn't a live shell, but it was fun pretending as I attacked its encrustation with a spade and told everyone to stand well back.
I've dug up quite a lot of stuff over the years - an old plough, bits of cast iron farm machinery, an old lorry chassis, and dozens of horse shoes in all sizes, some enormous.
Farmers just dump things and it all gets covered over.
|
|
Further investigation (I am fascinated now) shows the blockage at the end is a piston - seized solid. In fact the thing resembles a giant clutch slave cylinder, complete with the recessed dome for the push-rod, about 3" bore. Perhaps some hydraulic part from a digger?
|
fossil or hand grenade? - No FM2R
