A resident was stunned to find a massive 20ft metal pipe washed up on a beach.

Matt Boosey was walking along by the Tesco superstore in Sheerness yesterday morning (February 13) when he came across the bizarre object.

“It was literally right there in front of me," he said. "I thought ‘blimey, what the hell is that?’

“So I wandered down to have a look. It was ginormous. I'm 6ft 2in and it came up to my hip. I kicked it gently with my trainer and it was solid.

“It was definitely metal because you could see rust around the opening but it was encased in some sort of rubber as well.

“There was a big chain coming off one end, which indicated that maybe it had was from a boat or something.”

Matt regularly walks along that stretch of beach but says he has never seen anything like that before.

He added: “I mean it was ridiculous. You could have crawled through it if it wasn’t so filthy!”

The dad-of-five then posted pictures on The Sheppey History Page on Facebook and dozens of people tried to guess what it was.

Several suspected it could be a part of the American cargo ship SS Richard Montgomery, which sunk 1.5 miles off of Sheerness more than 80 years ago.

Others said it was a pipe from a dredger – a special contraption that moves sand and debris from the seabed.

They are an important tool for deepening water channels and preventing sedimentation in ports and harbours.

One person added: “They are often called Dunlops, as they were originally made by Dunlop and of course made out of rubber.

“When bolted together they float and anchored to a buoy in deeper water.

“This allows the dredging ship to connect to it and blast sand or shingle to an onshore lagoon.”

A HM Coastguard spokesman confirmed it was made aware of an object on Sheerness beach at 10.05am yesterday.

He said: “Sheppey Coastguard Rescue Team was called and secured the object.

“Peel Ports was called to investigate the item, which was suspected to be a commercial fender/dredger suction pipe and removed it from the beach.”