HOMES had to be evacuated when the bomb squad was called in to deal with a suspected unexploded missile.

Lincoln Lendor and a neighbour were digging in his garden when they came across the end of a metal cylinder with a fin.

The object turned out to be nothing more than a metal pipe but as Insp Paul Hawkins explained the authorities had to err on the side of caution.

The quiet cul-de-sac of 11 houses in Bosworth Road, Grange Park, was closed off by the police while the bomb disposal unit was brought in from Cheltenham.

Residents in the houses near Mr Lendor's were evacuated and others in the street were told to stay at the back of their properties.

Mr Lendor, who apologised to his neighbours for the inconvenience, said: "It was the back end that was sticking out.

"We saw it and thought we didn't want to keep digging.

"I'm just embarrassed. We were re-doing the garden and came across it.

"We couldn't see what it was so we called the police."

The object was discovered just before 1pm yesterday and the bomb disposal unit had removed the item by 3.30pm.

Insp Hawkins, of Swindon police, said: "They were digging in the garden when they came across what they thought was an unexploded missile.

"These things are always difficult to tell because if it is an unexploded device you don't know which period it's from.

"My instincts told me it wasn't an explosive device however the characteristics of it suggested that there was a possibility.

"We evacuated the immediate vicinity. There were a number of houses unoccupied because people were at work and we wanted to resolve it by the time they were home.

"Fortunately it's a quite residential area, not the centre of town, so it didn't cause chaos."

Neighbour Lee Evans arrived home from work and was unable to get into his house because of the police barrier.

"My girlfriend phoned me up to tell me," he said.

"You didn't know what was going to come up. It might have been nothing but it might have been something more serious."