A SCHOOLBOY got the shock of his life when he found an unexploded grenade in a field near Worcester.

Norton Fowles, aged 12, found the grenade, minus the pin, in a field off Brockhill Lane, Norton, near Worcester close to the former barracks while his dad was digging a trench on Saturday afternoon.

Mitchell Fowles, Norton's father, was using a digger to remove silt and vegetation from a natural stream so neighbour's horses had somewhere to drink when his son came towards him, holding the grenade.

The Chantry School pupil of Upper Sapey had been helping his dad by clearing away some bricks when he made the chance discovery.

Norton said: “I wasn’t sure at first what it was. I thought it was just a clump of metal. I picked it up. It felt heavy and I showed it to my dad on the digger.

“He told me to put it down very carefully and that’s where it has been since. I was a little bit scared.

"It is a bit nerve-wracking when you find an unexploded grenade. I don’t want to hold it again. I don’t want to touch it.”

His dad, 45-year-old dad Mitchell, who grew up in Norton said: “I was very apprehensive to see my lad carrying a hand grenade. I said ‘just place it over there’. We should probably report it to the police now. I don’t think it would be very responsible to just leave it there.

“I used to play here is a child and I never found anything as exciting as that and I have been all over this area. It makes you wonder what else is lying around.

"It makes you feel quite funny, getting too near to it."

Major Bob Prophet, retired secretary of the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment, said if the grenade was linked to Norton Barracks it was likely to date to before 1970 although he said there had been no grenade range there.

He said: "It's unlikely to be anything to do with us. It could be. But there is no definite link to the barracks as there was no grenade range.

"He should call the police immediately if it's still where he found it. No-one should touch it. Keep well away from it. Keep your head down."