A BUILDER working on the new Pakefield High School has made a surprise discovery at the site: a cannonball.

Stephen Holmes was amazed to find the old ordnance relic hidden in a lorryload of sand that was delivered to the site from Great Yarmouth outer harbour.

Mr Holmes, 34, from Yarmouth, said: 'I was levelling the sand and wondered what I had struck. It nearly broke my wrist.'

Having advertised the 28lb cannonball for sale for �60, it did not take Mr Holmes long to find a buyer, who told him he intended to give it to Yarmouth's Nelson Museum.

He said another three cannonballs were later found at the construction site, although their age was unclear.

Pakefield High, which is scheduled to open in September, is being built on the site of Pakefield Middle School, off Kilbourn Road. It will have 900 pupils.

The school is being built as part of the Suffolk schools organisational review, which will see all middle schools in Lowestoft closing next month as education in the town moves from a three to a two-tier system.