Army bomb disposal experts blew up an incendiary device in North Weald after a 999 call from a worried resident.
Other villagers were warned to stay indoors while the controlled explosion was carried out on Sunday morning.
The householder, who does not wish to be named, found two World War II shells in a garden shed he was clearing out on Saturday evening.
He had recently moved to the address in Weald Bridge Road.
A police spokesman said the two badly corroded devices, 12in long and one and a half inches in diameter, were examined by Army experts at the shed which was 100 yards from the nearest building.
One was live and the other was inactive. The dangerous shell was blown up in a nearby field.
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