Selsey / Church Norton

[John Screech]

Hi All, I am new to this forum, but do have an interest. I recently moved down to Selsey after spending many happy holidays here as a kid. Talking about Church Norton and the airfield there, I was metal detecting in the field immediately south of the path from the Church jut before it ends at the harbour shore. I was with my Father at the time and I guess this was about 1974 or 75. We got a decent blip and dug down about a foot and there was a cylindrical object with 4 fins on the top. I guess it was about 10 inches or so diameter and when scraped a little the sides were still shiny.

As it was obviously a bomb we called the local police station in Selsey who sent out a copper, and he was quite sure before he arrived it was going to be a tin cap. One look down the whole and he was off smartish to call the bomb disposal team. From what I hear they took it out to Pagham harbour and detonated it. We were talking to the girl who's parents owned the field and she was quite amazed that for years she had been riding her horse over the bomb and never knew.

It got me thinking as to whether this bomb was intended for Selsey airfield, or was part of the stick that fell on Selsey early in the war. I guess I will never know, but I just thought it might be interesting to folks on here.

John

[PNK]

John,

Welcome to the forum. Pagham Harbour was used as a bombing and air to ground firing range during the war so it might have been a stray from there if it wasn't a German one. I wonder if the BD team (probably RN from Portsmouth) kept a log of the incident and therefore the type?

[John Screech]

Thanks PNK.

If it was a stray it was pretty close to the Church and houses there, but it's possible of course. It would be interesting to find out if there is a record of it somewhere. Might see what I can dig up, if you pardon the pun.