The 100lb German aerial bomb was discovered by a hillwalker at Larksborough Ruin, two miles from the Exmoor village of Porlock on Sunday morning. Police cordoned off the area overnight until the Royal Navy’s Explosives Ordnance Division arrived.

The bomb had been exposed by the recent rain. It was dropped onto the soft, marshy area during the war and had not exploded. The bomb experts destroyed it in a controlled explosion yesterday.