THIS week 26 years ago, Ilminster town council and residents were effectively banned from the town's Recreational Grounds after a mystery prankster placed a bomb warning sign outside, causing mass evacuations.
The sign, according to the March 4 1999 article, had written on it "Danger, keep out. There are bombs and unexploded shells inside. They can kill you."
The original article read: “Life can be a real blast in Ilminster – as Ilminster town councillors discovered after a prankster decided to ban everybody from the Rec.”
When asked about the sign, the chairman of the town council’s open spaces committee in 1999, Nick Simpson, said: “People were walking to the 'Rec', taking one look at the sign and hurriedly walking away again.”
As The News reported, the Ilminster councillors originally came under fire in March 1999 when they put up by-law signs banning a variety of “unauthorised” games and activities, ranging from horse riding to animal grazing.
Parents claimed at the time that the signs at the Rec, Britten’s Field, Winterhay, West Crescent and Herne Hill, were “too confusing for children to understand”.
After some discussion, councillors agreed to change the signs; however the surprise bomb warning was not quite what they had in mind.
In the end, chairman Nick Simpson handed the Ministry of Defence sign over to the police.
Share