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Do you have any idea what this object could be?

Steve Beesley, 67, discovered the large metal item lying in a river while he was out walking his dog.

He said he was ‘puzzled’ by the strange discovery, wondering what the long-since rusted object could be and how it had got there.

He said he though it could be a unusual piece of mechanical equipment that had fallen from a plane, or simply an abandoned piece of machinery from a nearby farm.

He was so baffled he photographed it and shared it online to hear other people’s suggestions.

He stumbled on the peculiar object in the river Goyt, between Carr Mill and Billinge, east of St Helens.

He said: “I usually take my dog for a walk somewhere different every day, so I hadn’t been to that spot before.

“I’ve not seen anything remotely like it. I was completely puzzled by it, and thought to myself ‘how has it got here’.

“It’s too big to have washed down stream. Someone said afterwards it could be a piece of farm equipment, though it’s quite far to the nearest farm.

“Maybe it dropped off an aircraft. It’s just weird.”

Let us know what you think the object could be on Facebook, Twitter, the comments below or email to tom.belger@trinitymirror.com.