Sink holes in the farmyard

[Old Bull]

For the second time in a month we have had a sink hole open up in the farmyard. It's a legacy of old mine workings many of which are unrecorded. Often although the opening may not be very big, the hole can be many feet deep and wide underneath. They always open up after long periods of wet weather. This time I was driving through the passage way in the JCB telehandler and felt the back wheel sink. Fortunately this time I was able to drive it out but many years ago we had a combine drop in and it had to be lifted out with a crane!

 

[Jon]

Blimey, not nice.
Any depth to these ?

 

[Courier]

Looks like the one in the picture has been filled in before...

Up on Woolley Edge (half a mile from the M1 services near Wakefield) the farmer and his wife were walking in a field near to their house when she virtually disappeared int one of these, luckily he was able to grab her hand before she disappeared...

 

[Old Bull]

Blimey, not nice.
Any depth to these ?

Its about 10 ft deep. Rung the Coal Authority and they've come out to deal with it.

 

[Old Bull]

Looks like the one in the picture has been filled in before...

Up on Woolley Edge (half a mile from the M1 services near Wakefield) the farmer and his wife were walking in a field near to their house when she virtually disappeared int one of these, luckily he was able to grab her hand before she disappeared...

The top has been filled to level the site but it is below that that's given way. We are just off Junction 40 of the M1 so not far from Woolley Edge.

 

[Nearly]

So many tunnels, shafts and voids under that area.

 

[ollie989898]

Blimey, what you doing putting that there? Looks like you could fit at least 100 tyres in there....

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Could you fill the hole with gypsys and lurcher lads....

 

[holywell farmer]

For the second time in a month we have had a sink hole open up in the farmyard. It's a legacy of old mine workings many of which are unrecorded. Often although the opening may not be very big, the hole can be many feet deep and wide underneath. They always open up after long periods of wet weather. This time I was driving through the passage way in the JCB telehandler and felt the back wheel sink. Fortunately this time I was able to drive it out but many years ago we had a combine drop in and it had to be lifted out with a crane!

View attachment 636640 View attachment 636642

Deep level excavation maybe the answer

 

[Bury the Trash]

Its about 10 ft deep. Rung the Coal Authority and they've come out to deal with it.

......you could've said ... they've sent a man out to look in to it

 

[windymiller]

 

[sahara]

We have had sink holes open up in our fields before. We assumed that they were collapsed underground streams, as there is no history of mining in our area. Some have been quite big, one opened up as a contractor was drilling and was lucky not to have been swallowed up with his tractor and drill. That one took about 50t of soil to fill.
Do the coal people fill it up as a responsibility of theirs or do you have to pay? In Cornwall they often have holes open up as well and it sounds like the land owner has to pay.

 

[Nearly]

Could be pouring concrete down there until it fills the mining museum.
We had a pair of unsafe shafts and Coal Authority wanted to cap them but they left a 2 inch pipe through the 18" of reinforced concrete to allow them to push a tape measure down the hole to check water levels as it was same system as Mining Museum, 4 miles away.

 

[Selectamatic]

Fortunately this time I was able to drive it out but many years ago we had a combine drop in and it had to be lifted out with a crane!

We've had the exact same thing happen, twice!!

 

[Farmer Roy]

We have had sink holes open up in our fields before. We assumed that they were collapsed underground streams, as there is no history of mining in our area. Some have been quite big, one opened up as a contractor was drilling and was lucky not to have been swallowed up with his tractor and drill. That one took about 50t of soil to fill.
Do the coal people fill it up as a responsibility of theirs or do you have to pay? In Cornwall they often have holes open up as well and it sounds like the land owner has to pay.

Underground water flows through layers of gravel, sand etc, they are not "streams" as we think of above ground rivers. They can't collapse, even if the water is depleted, as the water exists in the pore spaces between the larger aggregates

 

[Courier]

Could you fill the hole with gypsys and lurcher lads....

Hole’s nowhere near big enough !!

 

[Nearly]

Hole’s nowhere near big enough !!

Only one way to find out how far down it goes.

 

[ollandroverman]

Underground water flows through layers of gravel, sand etc, they are not "streams" as we think of above ground rivers. They can't collapse, even if the water is depleted, as the water exists in the pore spaces between the larger aggregates

Oh yes they can be.
Countless miles of underground streams or the empty remains of them around the Cumbria Lancashire Yorkshire join for instance. The biggest and probably the most famous sink hole chamber around here is Gaping Ghyll and the Lancashire Hole system.
Gaping Ghyll itself if 322 feet deep, and big enough to fit St Paul cathedral in.
I used to do plenty of underground exploring ( or pot-holing as it is known) during my dangerous sports club days.

 

[Tonka]

Gaping Ghyll - now that's what you call a sink-hole!