Timsbury is a small, sleepy Somerset village, much like the other small, sleepy Somerset villages surrounding it. Nothing ever happens here. Until today …

Ian woke up to see a fire truck going past, at 6am.  Oddly, he thought nothing of it and went back to sleep.  When we got up properly at 8am, we looked out of the front window to check the weather.  To our surprise, the street was cordoned off with blue and white police tape; we were the first house outside the cordon.  Not long afterwards, a policewoman knocked on our front door, and explained that there had been “an incident” a few houses down.  That explained the fire truck.  We assumed it was something quite minor, until about an hour later, when another policewoman came to the door.  She explained that there had been a fire, and a discovery of “suspicious objects”, which “could potentially cause a problem”.  Others had been evacuated to the village hall.  From this, we gathered that they’d found something that might explode.  We decided now was a good time to take to the car and head out for the rest of the morning.

Next came a message from our AirBNB hosts, who were away from home (they live in the Old Post Office, next door).  They’d heard about “the incident” and wanted to make sure we were OK.  We googled “Timsbury” and “News” to find out what was happening.  Sure enough, the bomb squad had been called in, and roads had been closed all around the village. 

We kept an eye on the news – the story made it onto the BBC.  By 2pm, the bomb squad had declared the area safe, but arson was being investigated.  The cordon had been reduced, and we were OK to return.  It sounds like someone had been playing with a home made bomb, and had set fire to their house/garage – just a few doors down!  Memories of the pub in Paris that caught fire, a block away from our apartment, flashed back.

Our road remained blocked off until 5.15pm, when people inside the cordon were finally allowed to return to their homes.  News story: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn08x5yl28yo

This was definitely not expected when we booked our 2 nights at Timsbury!