AN estate agent received the shock of his life when he realised a doorstop and an object on a mantelpiece could be live shells.

John Catling, of Taylor and Fletcher in Chipping Norton, was showing clients around the Old Griffin House in the nearby village of Swerford when he came across the two objects.

The former village pub has been untouched since the 1930s and was put on the market by its 100-year-old owner Lily Burson, who is now living in a nursing home.

Mr Catling said: "I had noticed these rusty items but it was the client who pointed out they might be live. One was being used a doorstop and the other was on the mantelpiece.

"I played it down but when the clients had left I put the two objects in the back of my car and drove very gingerly to Chipping Norton police station, making sure I avoided any potholes. When I arrived the police officers at the front counter took several steps back."

Pc Bob Gillett took charge of the potentially explosive situation by placing the two-pounder shell and head of an aircraft bomb in the station's back garden and calling in Army experts.

Pc Gillett: "When someone walks in and says they've got something live it's always a bit of a shock.

"The Army bomb disposal team came along and concluded neither was in danger of exploding and took them away for us."

The Old Griffin was a pub for more than 200 years and Mrs Burson, who took it over in 1936, ran it with her husband Ernest until 1964.

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