A LANDSCAPE gardener had a lucky escape after his pickaxe hit a long-buried grenade. Gardeners were working on a 14-home development in Quentin Place, Codford, when they discovered the grenade, thought to be from the First World War.

Last Wednesday they carried it into a nearby field and left it there for a day before calling police.

Officers arrived on the scene and a team from the Army's bomb disposal unit carried out a controlled explosion on the grenade early on Thursday morning.

Neighbour Frances St Johnston said she thought the grenade must have still had some explosives in because of the noise when it was destroyed.

She said: "One of the men working on the site hit the grenade with his pickaxe.

"It then got moved into the field just over the road and the Army carried out a controlled explosion.

"It was a really loud bang and we think it was from around the time of the First World War. We get quite a lot around here because it used to be an encampment during the war."