Two historic cannon found on Porthcawl beach

Theories about the cannon's origins include a ship from the Napoleonic wars blown off course or a merchant ship caught in a storm

Two Georgian cannon have been uncovered on a beach in Porthcawl following the recent storms.

The cannon are approximately 5ft (1.5m) and 3ft (0.9m) in length.

One of the cannon, which were found on Pink Bay by two dog walkers, needed a team of around 17 lifeboat crew members, coastguards and local lifeguards to move it from the beach.

Porthcawl Museum will now work on preserving the find and carry out research into their history.

Carl Evans from Porthcawl RNLI was one of the team involved in the removal last Friday evening.

He said the recent stormy weather had washed away a lot of the sand from the beach.

Wheelbarrow

"Somebody was walking along the beach and saw the bit of metal and when they moved some stones they found the cannon.

"Paul Joseph from Porthcawl Museum went down there and found two cannon next to each other.

"He managed to get the 3ft cannon from the beach in a wheelbarrow.

"With the 5ft one he called me to see if we could move it and some some members of the lifeboat crew, the coastguard and Rest Bay lifeguards came along.

"We managed to move it using the trailer from the lifeguard hut."

The cannon was found on the beach by a walker

The cannon will have to be kept in salt water to preserve it

Mr Evans said the cannon was too heavy for six of them to lift.

At one stage, because of sand erosion, the team had to take it in turns to help lift the trailer over a 30ft (10m) stretch of rocks in front of the slipway.

Museum staff believe the cannon date from around the end of the 18th Century or the early 19th Century.

Ceri Joseph, a historian at the museum, told BBC Wales: "It's an incredible find for this area because it's a very rare piece of marine archaeology that we've never had before.

"We have got pieces from last century but this is quite something.

"We know there are wrecks off the coast here. At the moment we don't know if it's French or British.

"If it was a Navy ship, it could be that it was taking men from Bristol to Ireland.

"It could be from the Napoleonic war blown off course or it could just be a merchant ship caught in a storm, because of course in those days they would have carried cannon for protection."