Boer War shell shakes museum

A bomb was given a police escort from the City Museum

A Boer War bomb has been blown up after being found in a Bristol museum store cupboard.

Staff were doing a spring clean in the basement at the City Museum and Art Gallery on Thursday afternoon when they spotted it and realised it might be live.

Police brought in an Army bomb disposal squad, which took it to the nearby Clifton Downs and blew it up.

One of the curators, Sue Giles, said: "You do have to blow up history occasionally.

The shell apparently failed to explode in the Boer War

"You can't really keep live shells in a museum."

The shell was last catalogued 20 years ago, when no one realised it might be dangerous.

Staff were pulling out armour and swords from the cupboard when the 18 pound shell was spotted lying in a corner.

A volunteer at the museum, Michael Roche, had served with the Territorial Army and realised it had not detonated.

The bomb experts later explained it had been fired, but failed to explode.

It was apparently brought back to England as a souvenir.