Kessingland beach has always held a fascination for those who enjoy their local history, with metal detectors frequently turning up military relics that reveal the town’s wartime history.

Thanks to the nearby Pakefield rifle range, and the military units based on the coast during World War 2, the beach is a hotspot for local historians, with historical relics being uncovered all the time.

The latest find is a vintage grenade, rusted and deformed after years of erosion beneath the pebbles. As it was unclear whether the grenade was live or an inactive training model, army bomb disposal experts destroyed it in a controlled explosion. They discovered that the grenade was live and probably dated back to U.S. Army exercises which were carried out on the beach during World War 2.

As well as the grenade, the last year has seen amateur archaeologists discover bullets, cartridge cases, coins, arrowheads and much more, as the beach gives up more and more of its history.

Only a couple of miles down the beach from where the grenade was found, flint tools were uncovered which provided evidence of the oldest-discovered human settlement anywhere in the UK, and ancient tools are still discovered along the beach.