A TICKING time bomb under Otley Road, Skipton, could have exploded at any time during the last 60 years.

But builders averted a major disaster when they uncovered the live ammunition, rifles and hand grenades at the former JET petrol station site before they blew up.

The potentially dangerous situation came to light at about 5.30pm on Wednesday when a digger struck a metal ammunition box about half a metre under ground. It split open, and its shocking contents were revealed.

Inside were eight rifles including two German machine guns, 50 kilos of large ammunition including rounds of French ammunition, bullets for a large calibre machine gun, and two live hand grenades.

If moved or hit, the contents could have exploded. Amazingly the explosives were not disturbed when old houses on the site were knocked down and the petrol station was built.

Brian Verity, managing director of Skipton Properties, which is developing the site for housing, said employees were checking the ground conditions when they made their discovery.

"If the digger's bucket had gone in in the wrong place it would have exploded. It was very dangerous, the guns were badly corroded, they could have gone off," said Mr Verity.

He said the team shielded the site with a large excavator in case of an explosion, and rang the police who secured the site and called the bomb squad.

Bomb squad officers from Catterick arrived and carried out a controlled explosion of the hand grenade and hand grenade fuse in a nearby field. It took away the rest of the cache, but Captain Ian Poole said he could not say how dangerous the explosives were.

Mr Verity praised the bomb squad for the professional way it dealt with the situation.

Officers checked out the rest of the site before announcing that it was safe for Skipton Properties staff to return to work.

Mr Verity was told that some of the ammunition dated back to 1942. His theory is that the three feet by two feet box had been hidden in a house on the site prior to the petrol station.

He thought their owner could have died leaving the box hidden and when the houses were pulled down the guns were never uncovered. The box was found near to where the petrol station kiosk was.

Skipton police inspector Tad Nowakowski said: "I am reasonably satisfied that the items originate from old times, perhaps the Second World War. There is nothing suspicous about the find.

"But, I would be interested to find out how they got there, perhaps if any of our older residents can recall the box or who lived on the site they could contact the police."

Inspector Nowakowski said that the whole operation to remove the grenades and guns was done calmly and there was no reason for alarm.

He is hoping to provide the Herald with pictures of the haul for next week's edition.