Unexploded Shell Destroyed on Sandgate Beach

An Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team from the Royal Navy detonated an unexploded shell in a controlled explosion on Sandgate Beach in Kent, after the item was found washed ashore the previous day.

The incoming tide had prevented a detonation on the day of the shell’s discovery and a safety cordon was maintained by the local Police and Coastguard before the EOD team could reach the item.

Sandgate forms part of what was the heavily-militarised Kentish coastline during WWII. Numerous practice firing ranges, anti-invasion defences, coastal gun batteries and minefields were established along beaches and adjacent coastal waters in the area and Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) relating to this history regularly washes up with tidal currents to this day.

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