A German war relic came to a muddy and watery end when a group of men decided to sabotage it, writes Sahand Parvizi.

The British Government gave First World War souvenirs to towns and villages when hostilities ended. Wantage received a gun carriage, which was put in the Market Square, despite objections from townspeople.

Then, one night in 1922, a group of patriots got together in the Bell pub. After a few beers, they decided to remove the gun, but going down Mill Street, it proved too heavy and crashed into the brook. Bill Barlow, who lived in the town as a boy, described what happened to Oxford Mail columnist Anthony Wood in 1978.

He said: "The lads were well oiled and at chuck-out time, they went across to the gun which was standing behind the water trough opposite Nichols' paper shop.

"They started wheeling it away. But unfortunately for me, my stepfather saw me and told me to go home as I might get hurt and it was past my bedtime."

Len Willis, then a teenager, remembered the gun carriage snaking from side to side as the lads pushed it down Mill Street and the splash as it sank into the brook. Photographer Percy Jones arrived and took several shots of onlookers.

They included residents with such colourful names as Jazz' Embling, Lantern' Harris and Packet' Brewerton. The German gun went for scrap, but photographs of its ducking' survive.