TW&BH Litter Pickers find the most unusual things during their patrols around our area. Last year they won the national Litter Heroes Award and his year have been nominated for a BBC Radio Surrey Make A Difference Award.
This summer the drought had resulted in most of Mere Pond in Walton on the Hill drying up leaving a lot of historical litter behind.
Litter Picker Mark Molesey and his family were collecting litter from around the pond and had already collected eight bags full when he stumbled upon something strange. He had already discovered some old Coca Cola bottles which had probably been hidden underwater for fifty years or more when he came across a rusty metallic object. Upon closer observation he realised that he had stumbled across an old hand grenade.
He called the police who arranged for it to be collected and safely disposed of.
According to local historians, soldiers from the Canadian Army were based nearby during WWII and had used the pond as part of the D-Day exercises. Alternatively it might have been a fishing expedition that went wrong!
But that wasn’t the end of Mark’s adventure. Last week he appeared on BBC Radio Surrey to tell his story.
Visit #cleanuptadworth to find out more about our local litter pickers.