by Stephen Waite

Friends of an elderly man who had died made a shocking discovery while clearing his house.

Police and the Army were called in after the friends found what they thought was a bomb in a garden shed in Rectory Road, Sittingbourne, at 11.10am last Thursday.

The road was shut off and nearby homes were evacuated as police put a 50m cordon in place.

But within just a few minutes the cordon was removed, leaving residents bemused.

Tracey Cowles, 44, a hairdresser at Shumi, nearly opposite the house where the find was made, said: “We went outside and noticed the road was being shut and said ‘what’s going on?’ The policewoman said we had to evacuate.

“Then the dustbin men came down and emptied the bins right outside the house and everyone thought ‘OK, we will go back in then’.

“They told us to stay away from the windows and that was it. I’d have thought, with a bomb, we might have had a bit more information.”

A neighbour, who did not want to be named, described the police handling of the situation as “farcical”, adding: “I was told to get out but by the time I put my shoes on there were people walking past again, so I didn’t bother.

“I don’t know what would’ve happened if it was something serious.”

May Becker, 66, of Rectory Road, said: “There was no organisation to it. They [the police] went and there was nothing, just one policeman. It was the clumsiest thing I’ve ever seen.”

Cllr Martin McCusker, the Labour representative for Roman ward, which includes Rectory Road, was in the area at the time of the alert.

He said: “One of the residents used to collect old things and there was what looked like an unexploded device.

“The police came and cordoned the road off and started evacuating homes from the end of Rectory Road to a third of the way down.

“But five minutes later they came out and stopped and started letting people back in their houses.

“They must have initially considered it was something live but then realised it wasn’t.”

A police spokesman said the cordon was a safety precaution.

He added: “However, as we received further information about the device, a cordon was no longer necessary.

“To minimise disruption, residents were advised that they no longer had to leave their homes.”

• 1944 Luftwaffe raid

The Ministry of Defence explosive ordnance disposal unit was called, and identified the object as a 1kg German incendiary bomb.

An Army spokesman said: “They were dropped by their thousands and they’re found on almost a daily basis.”

It was blown up by the team in a nearby field at 1.20pm.

The town was badly hit early in 1944 when the Luftwaffe dropped incendiary devices.

Among the damaged buildings was the Methodist chapel in Sittingbourne High Street, just over a mile from Rectory Road.

Murston history expert Bryan Clark both corrsaid there were quite a few occasions when incendiaries were dropped on the town and did not go off because they landed in soft ground.

He said: “The Germans would come in over Dover and head over Sittingbourne on the way to the Thames estuary, which they would follow into London.

“But when it used to get heavy with flak, they’d lighten their loads by jettisoning their bombs.”