BOMB disposal experts had to be called in to Trowbridge for the second time in just two weeks on Tuesday, July 30, when a shell was found in a garden.

The shell later turned out to be harmless but people living within 100 metres of the site, at Jenkins Road on the Seymour estate, had to be evacuated for over an hour while they waited for the all-clear.

Insp Jon Tapper, of Trowbridge police, said: "Officers had to go to about 80 houses and of those people who hadn't gone out or to work we asked them to leave the area."

The 12-inch shell was found by Daniel Brewer, 46, who was digging holes to put in a garden fence for a neighbour.

He said: "At first I thought it was a bottle so I dug around it carefully, thinking it might be a decent bottle, then I realised it was metal and tried to prise it out of the ground with my spade.

"Then I saw what it was and by the weight of it I thought it might be live, so I called the police."

Bomb disposal experts took the shell, thought to be a training device, away from the site. Avril Mould, in whose garden it was found, said: "It is not what you expect I only wanted a fence put up.

"There are another 13 holes to be dug yet and I just hope we don't find any more."

Experts had to be called in to another site in the town on July 16 when live WWII ammunition was found by builders. Bythesea Road was closed for five hours and part of Wiltshire county Council's offices evacuated after workmen at the McCarthy and Stone site at the former TA centre uncovered 11 anti-tank and hand grenades.

The weapons were blown-up in a series of controlled explosions.