Editor’s Note: The following is a republished account of a remarkable local story that originally made headlines in November 2015.
The Secret in the Trunk: How a Decaying Garden Tree Placed an Ely Woman Under Armed Police Protection
What began as a routine afternoon of domestic gardening in the historic city of Ely took a harrowing, bizarre turn when a homeowner decided to chop down a dead apple tree—only to uncover a deadly relic of wartime history hidden inside its rotting trunk.
Christine Battersby, a resident living on Back Hill, had hired a professional tree surgeon to clear a long-dead fruit tree from her garden. The ancient tree, likely a lingering remnant of the area’s historic monastic orchards, had stood lifeless for years, casting a shadow over the lawn.
Neither Battersby nor her hired help could have anticipated that the hollow base of the decaying trunk was harbouring a dangerous secret: an unexploded British military hand grenade, deliberately stowed away and forgotten by time.
FROM GARDEN WORK TO BOMB DISPOSAL ]
Routine Removal-A tree surgeon begins felling a dead apple tree on Back Hill.
Dreaded Finding-An unexploded hand grenade is discovered inside the hollow trunk.
Tactical Guard-Bomb disposal sandbags the area; armed police Controlled End-Army bomb squad safely detonates the wartime relic at dawn.
A Cool Head in the Canopy
The astonishing discovery fell upon Glen Conway, a tree specialist from nearby Haddenham. Conway was nearing the final stages of the job, systematically taking down the branches and working his way down to the thick base of the trunk, when he peered into a dark hollow at ground level and spotted the iron casing of the explosive.
Rather than panicking, Conway handled the situation with professional poise, immediately stepping back from the danger zone and dialing emergency services.
Battersby later praised the tree surgeon’s unflappable reaction during a situation that could have easily spiraled into terror. Within minutes of the call, local law enforcement flooded the street, establishing an emergency cordon and issuing urgent warnings for neighbors to clear the area or shelter indoors.
Sandbags, Steel, and Overnight Protection
Recognizing the volatile nature of aging military explosives, police summoned specialized assistance from the British Army. The Colchester-based Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) unit—a elite division of the Royal Logistic Corps—was swiftly dispatched to the scene.
Given the proximity to residential homes, bomb disposal officers determined that attempting an immediate night detonation carried too much risk. Instead, teams worked late into the evening to stabilize the threat.
Local builders’ merchant Jewsons in nearby Ely generously provided heavy-duty supplies at a moment’s notice, allowing bomb technicians to encase the base of the tree in a protective fort of sandbags.
Yet the physical hazard was only half the problem. Fearing that news of the historic explosive would leak out and attract reckless “treasure hunters” or military relic collectors eager to dig up a wartime souvenir, police took the extraordinary step of placing Battersby’s home under 24-hour police protection.
Officers stood guard over the sandbagged garden through the night to secure the perimeter against nocturnal trespassers.
A Quiet Blast at Dawn
At 8:00 a.m. the following morning, the specialized Army unit brought the ordeal to a safe, dramatic conclusion. With the street cleared and precautions fully in place, the EOD squad safely neutralized and disposed of the grenade, neutralizing a threat that had sat undisturbed just feet from a residential back door for decades.
The incident offered a surreal glimpse into the specialized work of the British Army’s EOD Regiment. Established in the aftermath of World War II, the regiment remains one of the UK’s busiest military units, tasked with responding to conventional munition discoveries nationwide, conducting high-threat counter-terrorist bomb disposal, and deploying alongside international forces.
For Christine Battersby, the strange event served as a surreal, unforgettable lesson in local history. How or why the grenade was concealed inside the hollow of an ordinary apple tree on Back Hill remains an unsolved mystery—a silent, volatile shadow of wartime Britain waiting decades to be brought back into the light.