More than 500 pupils were evacuated Sandham Middle School after a wartime shell was uncovered during building works on 5th December 2000.
Workmen extending the school triggered panic when a 14-inch wartime shell was discovered as ballast was being unloaded for a £700,000 school extension.
Police raced to the scene, shutting nearby roads and ordering an immediate evacuation. Pupils were marched to safety at the Sandown High School Sports Centre as officers sealed off the area.
The drama began when workman Marvin Dunklin spotted the object. Believing it harmless, he picked it up to show colleagues — only then was the alarming truth realised.
Army bomb disposal experts were scrambled from Aldershot, confirming the shell was live before carrying out a controlled explosion.
Investigators later learned the device had arrived in aggregate dredged from waters near the Nab Tower – a notorious location for wartime ordnance. It had slipped through metal-detection checks, something experts admitted was not unusual. Four similar shells had been removed from Blackhouse Quay in Little London in the preceding months.
A routine day at a middle school turned into a full-scale bomb alert – one that hundreds of Island children will never forget.
Were YOU one of the pupils or staff evacuated during the Sandham bomb scare 25 years ago? Let us know in the comments.
I was employed as an LSA and I was turning students away who were arriving from Sandown station and directing them to the High School site – of course, they didn’t believe me when I explained what was occurring!
A 14 inch shell? 14-inch naval shells typically weighed around 1,400 to 1,600 pounds (635 to 725 kg).
Andhe picked it up?