THE Ministry of Defence (MoD) has revealed one of the largest hauls of live ammunition ever found in the UK was discovered near a village between York and Selby.

In documents released exclusively to The Press, the MoD confirmed an area at Thorganby had to be cordoned- off after more than 45,000 rounds of various calibres were found buried in a field.

The stash was found by members of the Ministry of Defence’s property arm, the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO), during the assessment of the former RAF Cottingwith site.

An MoD spokesman said: “A total of 48 sandbags, each believed to contain approximately 1,000 live ammunition rounds, were taken away by Explosive Ordnance Clearance Group, part of 33 Engineer Regiment, to be made safe. This is believed to be one of the largest ammunition finds of its kind in the UK.”

Staff Sergeant Philip Oldfield, from 33 Engineer Regiment, who led the excavation of the site and oversaw the removal of the ordnance, said: “This was quite a sizeable haul of ammunition that took some time to remove.

“We were pleased to be able to assist, as it was important to ensure all of the materials were disposed of safely.”

The area was cordoned off by the Army, and the live rounds, of mainly American and Canadian issue, were removed over a period between December and January. They were taken for safe disposal at an army barracks in Cambridgeshire.

David Olney, DIO deputy chief executive, said: “We take our responsibility as a landowner seriously and undertake this work because we want to ensure human health and the environment are adequately protected. We decided to carry out the assessment at West Cottingwith voluntarily.

“The fact we discovered these bags of old ammunition and were able to dispose of them safely and quickly demonstrates our commitment to ensuring sites like this are safe for their current use, in this case farming.”

The site was used as a chemical filling station for RAF Cottingwith during the Second World War, and the land assessment was ordered to check for any health or environmental risks from before the base was decommissioned and largely dismantled in the early 1950s.

A spokesman for the MoD said although the ammunition was located in December and removed by January, the find could not be made public until after full assessments had taken place.