A 12-YEAR-OLD boy is appealing for help in identifying a piece of World War Two history which he found washed up on the Yorkshire Coast.

Liam Branagan, from Peasholm, Scarborough, was exploring Thornwick Bay ,at Flamborough Head, when he spotted a large section of steel bulkhead lying on the rocks.

Hundreds of wrecks are known to lie in the deeper waters beyond the bay from all eras of maritime history.

But this piece of wreckage was much larger than most of those that wash ashore, measuring some seven or eight feet in length and five foot across.

It has a steel riveted military style design which would appear to rule out it coming from a more modern warship which are usually constructed of more lighter materials, Liam’s dad Mark said.

Mr Branagan, 52, continued: “Liam found it lying on the rocks. It is immensely heavy so it must have been quite a storm which brought it to land after all these years.

“It is far too heavy to lift and wedged in the rocks so it would need quite an operation to lift it.”

Liam made his discovery in an area of the beach which is quite difficult to reach by hopping from boulder to boulder.

The family has drawn a blank on internet research. Diving websites list huge numbers of wrecks off the coast including War War One, World War Two and early 20th century steamers.

The bulkhead appears to be military but could have come from a fishing vessel with heavy duty bulkheads or an armed merchant vessel pressed into service during the fighting.

*If you can help in identifying the bulkhead, email newsdesk@thepress.co.uk or call 01904 567131.