ARMY bomb disposal experts were called after a haul of Second World War explosives was found under the floorboards of a house in Horwich.

Builders found four anti-aircraft shells, two hand grenades and a box of about 40 bullets underneath the floor in the front room of the house in St Annes Road at noon yesterday.

The house belonged to pensioner Kenneth Wilson, a former engineer and collector of “interesting objects”, according to neighbours.

Mr Wilson, who was said to be in aged his 80s, died before Christmas, and his house was bought about a month ago by property developer John Greenhalgh.

Mr Greenhalgh and his 21-yearold son, Jake Greenhalgh, were renovating the three-bedroom terraced house with a view to letting it out when they made the discovery.

They had already found a deactivated hand grenade in the loft about two weeks ago, but decided to call the police when they found another grenade, four shells and the box of bullets.

Mr Greenhalgh, aged 48, of Standish, said: “We were ripping up the flooring and noticed there was a bit of debris. I said that looks like a shell. And so does that one. And that one.

“I wasn’t scared at all, because we didn’t think they were live. I put them in the front and then I thought it’s a bit silly this — I better get them checked out just in case.”

Neighbours were evacuated by police for several hours while they waited for army bomb disposal experts from Chester and Catterick.

A team from the Royal Logistics Corps examined the shells to make sure they were safe and made a thorough search of the house to see if anything else had been hidden in the building.

A crowd of residents watched as the soldiers removed the ordnance and took them away for disposal.

The shells and the grenades were all safe and posed no danger to the public.

Neighbours said Mr Wilson once told them that he had lost a finger and the sight in one eye as a teenager after he stole some explosives from a local factory.

They also said that the pensioner had no children and left a large sum of money to the Guide Dogs for the Blind charity when he died.