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Swallowed Up By The Ground: Sinkholes!

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Anonymous

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Reading the thread on humans buried in concrete reminded me of a story I heard when I was a kid. I lived on a crossroads and I was told by several people that in the early years of the 20th century a house and cart had just turned one of the corners when the ground just opened up beneath them and driver, horse, cart and all were swallowed up never to be seen again. Now, I don't believe any aspect of this story but are there any other stories of people/vechicles being swallowed by the earth, is it a common UL????????

Coincidentally, I lived a mere stones throw from the cemetry where a PC Gutteridge is buried whose killers goughed his eye out in case their image was 'photographed' on them ( a UL now hopefully long dead!!!).....this murder case is famous for something, first time fingerprints used or something like that but I can't remember what...............
 
An old bridge near where i live in the Highlands- cant remember what it is called but it was recently "probed" and they found the outline of a horse and cart in the concrete. Dont know what technique they used- presumably some kind of sonic method. It was quite well publicised. In the Inverness Courier and th Aberdeen Press&Journal
 
Re: Swallowed up by the ground......

Blueswidow said:
Coincidentally, I lived a mere stones throw from the cemetry where a PC Gutteridge is buried whose killers goughed his eye out in case their image was 'photographed' on them ( a UL now hopefully long dead
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- but it figured in 'wild wild west' possibly the worst film ever made!
 
They also photographed the eyes of one of the Ripper victims in case her murderer's image was imprinted on them.

Carole
 
I'm going to go against the grain here (for me) and drag this thread back on topic!

It is not uncommon for the ground to open up and swallow people. It happens due to subsidence over old mines, or even to the collapse of inadequately 'capped' mineshafts. I would say it happens at least once a year here in Cornwall, and there are similar tales from other old mining districts.

Admittedly most of these subsidences do not result in fatalities, but there have been any number of close calls. One women was hnging out her washing when her garden collapsed beneath her, and in Camborne, back in the 19th century, a parade ground disappeared into the depths only a short while after the local Volunteer regiment had been marching on it!
 
barndad said:
An old bridge near where i live in the Highlands- cant remember what it is called but it was recently "probed" and they found the outline of a horse and cart in the concrete. Dont know what technique they used- presumably some kind of sonic method. It was quite well publicised. In the Inverness Courier and th Aberdeen Press&Journal
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Do you have a link to any of the stories about this?

sureshot
 
I think I remember this story too. A horse and cart fell down a deep (tall?) hollow pillar whilst the bridge was being constructed. It was too deep to rescue the horse (and it probably didn't survive the fall) so they filled it in.
 
A huge hole opened up in a street in Crewe, Cheshire a week or 2 back when a car fell through the tarmac! A nearby stream had somehow saturated the ground and washed everything away beneath the road. The girl whose car sank wasn't hurt, but wasn't a happy bunny either!
 
See FT 147 page 22 for a photograph of the 40 ft deep hole that appeared recently in a garden at Thorpe St Andrew, near Norwich. I've got a feeling that a similar incident to the one escargot mentions happened in Stoke a few years back.

Also, can anyone else recall a black and white photograph of a double-decker bus sticking out of a huge hole in the road?
 
Sureshot, gabbarabbit seems to have found it. I tried searching the inverness courier http://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/ but it doesnt go back far enough. As my local paper its full of interesting stuff. Quite often fortean "Nessie" things and other stuff.
As to photographing dead people's eyes- Do you think David Lynch had heard of this when he wrote Twin Peaks? I mean about the scene where Cooper watches the video of Laura and sees the reflection of Jamies bike in her eyes (those who watched on Sat. might have it fresh i their heads).
There may be some kind of deep subconscious thing that makes the eyes of dead people particularly facsnating/creepy/repellent.
 
Spook said:
See FT 147 page 22 for a photograph of the 40 ft deep hole that appeared recently in a garden at Thorpe St Andrew, near Norwich. I've got a feeling that a similar incident to the one escargot mentions happened in Stoke a few years back.

Also, can anyone else recall a black and white photograph of a double-decker bus sticking out of a huge hole in the road?
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There are 2 possible I know of that show that. One is the famous one taken in the Blitz and one concerns a north English city (Bradford? Blackburn?) where they measured holes in DDBs (Double Decker Bus'). Norwich too has a bad reputation for sudden cavities.
 
Hermes said:
.... Folklorists out there will be familiar with the story of Revd & Professor Robert Kirk of Aberfoyle, author of The Secret Commonwealth of Elves and Fairies (c.1791), who vanished - appropriately - at a now-famous fairy mound - the first 'abductee'?
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Surely Thomas the Rhymer
 
Wasn't the hole in Norwich caused by a piece of glacier from the ice age getting trapped underground so that when it finally melted it left a huge cavity? This hole then sat there for thousands of years before the ground finally fell in.
 
Thanks for the link to the horse and cart story. :)

sureshot
 
a horror sidenote

The writer Peter Straub in his novel "Floating Dragon" gives an account of a spit of land that splits open and swallows a church's congregation out there for a Sunday picnic. The ground closes over them, and their screams can be heard by nearby ships. Mr. Straub is known to research folklore and fortean items of interest while preparing to write, so maybe that could be looked into, maybe if there is some Straub "superfan" out there who has some idea where he may have come up with this particular motif.
Of course he may have just created the whole scene purely from his imagination.
Maybe I didn't see it, but did anyone say anything about the Hans Christian Andersson story "The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf of Bread"? If I'm not mistaken one of it's central images is of a girl being "swallowed up by the ground". It may not be a modern urban legend, but I think it will fit under a folklore category quite nicely.
 
There was a major landslip near Axmouth, southeast Devon, in the19th century, described as "The Wonder of the Age". Amazingly, no-one was killed.

Click here for Old Picture ; here for Story
 
Now if you're looking for weird places, try the Undercliff created by the above landslip. The coastal path between Seaton and Lyme Regis - both picturesque and eerie.

And the cliffs are still crumbling into the sea on fossil beach, of course.

:)
 
The latest FT has a piece about people and places swallowed up by the ground in France, caused by the collapse of old limestone quarries (which were more like caves, in fact).
 
OFF TOPIC

Sorry for the off topic, but Ryn you are from Cornwall?
 
That's what it says (and I didn't get it out of a book!)
 
Another Cornish 'ole

In Redruth today, half of a bungalow's front garden diappeared down a huge hole, thought to be an old mine shaft. (The mine last worked in 1890.)

When the local TV cameras got there, the sounds of falling rock and rubble could still be heard, echoing out of the hole - creepy!

Luckily no-one was hurt in this incident, but the home-owners have had to move out as the hole is still growing, and the road alongside is also at risk.

There was a lot of rain in this area today, and this probably triggered the collapse.
 
Any records of anyone actually being sucked down a sinkhole? Just wondering...
 
Sinkholes!

Giant sinkhole in Guatemala swallows father, teens
Associated Press
Published Friday, February 23, 2007
GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala (AP) -- A giant sinkhole opened before dawn Friday, swallowing several homes and a truck and leaving a father and two teenagers missing in Guatemala City.

Officials said the 100-meter-deep (330-foot-deep) sinkhole in a crowded neighborhood of poor, concrete homes was caused by recent rains and an underground sewage flow from a ruptured main.
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National disaster coordinator Hugo Hernandez identified the missing as Domingo, Irma and David Sosyos, ages 53, 18 and 15, respectively. A body appeared in a river of sewage near the sinkhole, but it was unclear whether the corpse was a victim.

"The shaking of the house woke us up," said 26-year old Edward Ramirez, who lives 50 meters (50 yards) from the sinkhole and said residents had been hearing noises and feeling tremors for about a month. "People were shouting 'the electric posts are falling down!' We are going to a friend's house now, there's no way we'll stay here."

Authorities said the hole was extremely unstable, forcing the evacuation of nearly 1,000 people from their homes. Police helped residents, some even carrying refrigerators and televisions on their shoulders.

The pit was emitting foul odors, loud noises and tremors, and a rush of water could be heard from its depths. Authorities feared it could widen or others could open up.

Security officials were on guard for possible looters and to clear the area of onlookers.

Cristobal Colon, a spokesman for the municipal water authority, said the sewage main ruptured after becoming clogged. He said the city was aware of the blockage and the army had considered a controlled explosion to clear the pipe, which carries both rainwater and sewage for much of the capital.

Antonio Fuentes, 50, said he plans to abandon the run-down neighborhood he has called home for 15 years.

"Last night a friend had to take my handicapped wife out on motorcycle," he said. "Now I'm leaving for good, never to come back."
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Article link

A couple of good photos in this norwegian newspaper
 
Couple wake to find mystery giant hole in their lawn has swallowed a skip
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 8:31 PM on 02nd December 2009

A couple were shocked to discover a mystery 20-foot hole in their back garden, swallowing a skip that had been in its place.
Kate Scott and partner Paul Harding, who moved into the house in Stokenchurch, Buckinghamshire, just two weeks ago, had ordered the skip as they were preparing to build a new conservatory.
But they were left stunned on Sunday morning when they woke to find the six-yard skip had fallen into a giant hole measuring 15ft by 15ft.

They later discovered that the skip had sunk into a cesspit beneath their lawn, which they had not known was there.
Ms Scott, 37, said: 'It was a massive shock, we just couldn't believe it. The hole is about 20-foot-deep and takes up a third of our front garden.

'It's really gutting as we only moved in two weeks ago.'

The couple, who have a nine-month-old baby Scott, ordered the skip to be delivered to their house on Friday evening.

They had arranged for builders to start digging out foundations for the conservatory on Sunday.
But when they woke at 6.30am on Sunday morning they were puzzled to find they had no water.

An hour later Mr Harding looked out the window and saw the empty skip had fallen through their lawn into a gaping hole.

Kate, who is 30 weeks pregnant with twins, added: 'We had to get another skip company to haul it out as the original company doesn't work on a Sunday.

'Normally my other half parks his van there. If the skip hadn't been there, the van would have been.

'Our biggest problem is we now have nowhere to park and we can't use our front pathway. Fortunately our neighbours have been lovely and very helpful.'

The couple now hope their building insurance will resolve the problem and the conservatory plans are on hold.
Keith Walker, of K&S Walker Skips, which pulled the skip out the ground, said: 'I've never seen anything like this happen before.
'The couple called me on the Sunday morning and we used chains to pull it out.

'Luckily it was empty so it was a fairly easy task.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z0YcVqr8QQ
 
Stroke of luck: Electrician narrowly escapes as an enormous crater swallows up his backyard
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 12:35 PM on 14th April 2010

A father-of-two has narrowly avoided being sucked into a massive sinkhole which formed a 25ft deep crater in his backyard just seconds after he walked across it.
Electrician Ben Luck lived up to his name after the crater, measuring 20ft wide, swallowed up most of his patio just as he went inside his house.

Mr Luck, 57, and his wife Jean, 55, initially thought a car had crashed into their three-bedroom home.
'It was like an earth quake, there was a rumbling and we both ran out to look and there just a couple of steps away there was this monstrous hole,' Mr Luck said.

'It was there in a second. There wasn't a bit of dust, and there was no sign of the crazy paving, it had all disappeared in the hole. It was about 25 foot deep.'

'I had been gardening and my wife called me inside for lunch and I walked across the patio. If I had been there at the time I would have died, there wouldn't have been any trace of me. I feel very lucky, luck by name, luck by nature I suppose.' 8)

The couple and their children immediately fled their house and have since had to move into a hotel.
'I was terrified, I was shaking. I told my wife to run. I was worried the house would fall into it, I still am, Mr Luck said.

Structural engineers have told the couple they can't return to their home, in Grays, Essex, until there is no risk the house will cave in.
The massive crater has increased in size since it was first exposed and has been sealed off with metal safety railings.

Engineers said the swallowhole was caused after water penetrated chalk 80ft below the house, causing hundreds of tonnes of earth to shift in a second.

The couple plan to fill the hole with concrete but will be out of their home for up to eight weeks.

'Me and my wife are still in shock. Last year we held my son's wedding reception in the garden and about 100 people attended so it was lucky it didn't collapse then,' he said.

'There were people on the patio drinking cocktails and waitresses serving drinks. It would have been a disaster if it had gone then.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z0lA0JNgSK
 
Structural engineers have told the couple they can't return to their home, in Grays, Essex, until there is no risk the house will cave in.
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This is my home town, hadn't heard anything about it though. i am off work the weekend i'll see if i can get pictures.[/quote]
 
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