On This Day in Wembury – 20 July 1939
A routine day at Knighton Farm, Wembury took a dramatic turn when farmhand Walter Norfolk uncovered what appeared to be a live shell while scything weeds in the orchard. The shell, around 18 inches long and three inches in diameter, lay scarcely fifty yards from the farmhouse of Mr. M. J. Sherwill. Police were called, and military authorities from Plymouth’s Ordnance Depot arrived to deal with the find.
By the following day ( 20th ) the shell was declared harmless — an old 18-pounder shrapnel shell from the Great War, most likely kept as an ornamental relic before being abandoned. Though heavily rusted and no danger, its discovery was enough to unsettle the farm until the experts gave their verdict.
Reflection
This small drama reminds us how the legacy of war often lingered in rural places like Wembury. For the Sherwills and their workers, the orchard was not just a place of fruit and labour but also, unexpectedly, a resting place for a weapon from the previous conflict — a quiet echo of 1914–18 found on the eve of another world war.