My mum found this in the garden...

[TreacheryPepper]

My mum moved into a rental property last year. The garden was in a bit of a state when she moved in, and she's been gradually digging areas in preparation for seeding a lawn. She's removed loads of crap from the soil, but yesterday came across this.

It appears to be made of iron and is very heavy for its size. It's like a small cannon ball.

Has anyone come across anything similar?

Lime included for scale.

I'm always very careful about unidentified objects as August 12th approaches.
Although I know that '...the chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one...', well you just never know.

This brought up a memory. When I was a child (many moons ago!), if we ever found something in the garden - glass/wood/metal/etc - my late father would always exclaim and say "that's a part of my viking warship!" After a while we got used to it and when we found a new treasure we'd run in shouting "Dad, we've found another bit of your viking warship". That's made me smile remembering it.

What happens on the 12th of August?

Its from War of the Worlds, as is the quote.

"At midnight, on the 12th of August, a huge mass of luminous gas erupted from Mars and sped towards Earth."

That's such a lovely memory; your dad sounds like he was fun.

Across two hundred million miles of void, invisibly hurtling
towards us, came the first of the missiles that were to bring so much calamity to Earth.
As I watched, there was another jet of gas. It was another missile, starting on its way.
And that's how it was for the next ten nights. A flare, spurting out from Mars - bright
green, drawing a green mist behind it - a beautiful, but somehow disturbing sight. Ogilvy,
the astronomer, assured me we were in no danger. He was convinced there could be no
living thing on that remote, forbidding planet.

Is it magnetic?

I think the green one is a lime. It's quite an interesting find in a UK garden, as limes don't commonly grow in the UK. My bet is that it's been imported from a hotter country and placed in the garden next to the rusty metal ball.

Thanks @RoseslnTheHospital 😊

😂

Ooh interesting - when I was a child I found loads of these (possibly a bit smaller than your one) in my garden - I have a collection of them stored in an old margarine tub somewhere in the loft!

Small gauge cannon ball or possibly case shot - cannon sized shotgun!

It is indeed magnetic.

Definitely not musket ball but looks like small cannon ball instead.

Are you near any civil war sites? I am and musket balls etc are regularly found in gardens

I love google:
finds.org.uk/counties/findsrecordingguides/shot/

It gives some weights / dimensions of early ammunition.

Hope its useful.

How much does it weigh?

Message from weapons enactment person:

Sorry, posted too soon:

" I can say potentially it is a piece of munition more than likely an iron cannon ball quite common that size would suggest a ound from either grape shot or a smaller bore cannon. that or someone has made something at home for fun. but i couldnt tell you what it is for sure. but could potentially be something. If you go to a local armed forces museum they may be able to tell more in the flesh

that or it could be some kind of weight or ball bearing for something. I can't be completely sure. if its grape shot it wont be civil war"

It's also the start of the grouse shooting season, although I'm not sure that's much of a thing in the E Midlands.

Mr Ball legs

"Congratulations on choosing the Armstrong Whitworth four pounder cannonette. Please read the instructions carefully and it should guarantee you years of trouble free maiming."

Could it not be a mustard ball? Used for crushing mustard seeds in a bowl.

Oh this is like a live episode of Detectorists! I'm very invested. I hope you find out what it is OP!

AKA The Glorious Twelfth. 😠