A group of magnet fishers were left stunned after pulling a Royal Navy CANNON dating back to the 19th Century out of a river - in one of the first discoveries of its kind. <br /><br />Six members of The Peaky Dippers spent several hours scouring the River Don, in Sheffield, after hearing stories about wartime artillery being dumped there.<br /><br />And they were left gobsmacked when they latched on to a heavy item while fishing from the riverbank - and hauled out a 3ft (0.9m) antique cannon.<br /><br />The treasure hunting group, based in Birmingham, later discovered it belonged to the Royal Navy Signals and dated back to the 1800s. <br /><br />The weapon, which was found before Christmas, has been restored and cleaned up and now sits in the living room of Glen and Marie Collins in Sandwell, West Mids. <br /><br />The couple are both members of the magnet fishing group, which has been searching waterways across the UK in search of treasure for the past seven years. <br /><br />Marie, 50, said: "We'd heard stories about cannons that were sent to Sheffield to be smelted down after wars being thrown in the river.<br /><br />"Only one cannon has previously been found by magnet fishers in a river but its origins were unknown and we know this is a Royal Navy Signals cannon.<br /><br />"So we believe our find is pretty unique. We usually spent around eight to 10 hours a day magnet fishing and you often just pull out bits of scrap metal. <br /><br />"It's a lot of hard work and time consuming. So it was unbelievable to pull out a cannon, we could not believe it. <br /><br />"We were elated. We've found lots of cannon balls near battle sites but never a cannon before. <br /><br />"We had been fishing all morning from bridges but we went along the side of the river and my husband Glen managed to latch on to something really heavy.<br /><br />"You can see in the video how elated we were to find it. You find all sorts in rivers but you don't expect to find a cannon. It was absolutely amazing.<br /><br />"We've cleaned it up and its currently sitting on a display stand in our living room. We didn't really know what else to do with it." <br /><br />Video footage uploaded to social media on Friday (5/1) captured the moment Glen, 43, and fellow magnet fisher Steve Forrest, 43, pulled the cannon from the river.<br /><br />They can be heard laughing and exclaiming: "I'm going to cry. You beauty. I'm in shock. I'm speechless."<br /><br />Last year, Dave Sonik Jordan, 46, and Raymond Harper, 73, pulled a centuries old cannon from along the same stretch of river.<br /><br />It was hailed as the first time a cannon had ever been retrieved from a river in the UK.
