Northwich has the misfortune to be built on the top of a pie-crust. If
you cover some fruit in a pie-dish with a crust and then pump out the
juice and fruit through a hole in the crust and place a heavy weight on
it, you naturally expect the crust to break and the weight to fall into
the dish. The pie under Northwich is made of rock salt, and on the top
of the salt is a large amount of juice (or brine), and over it is the
earth's crust. But a good many Jack Homers have been at this pie and
have pumped the brine away. The heavy buildings on the crust have then
broken through it, and in this way Northwich is subject to "fits."
Locally they are called "subsidences."
The classic event at Northwich was the upsetting of a house called
"Castle Chambers," occupied at the time by a solicitor. At 3 o'clock one
morning in May, this house fell back into a large hole which suddenly
opened at the rear of it. But not a single brick was moved nor a pane of
glass broken, though the chimney was not proof against such antics and
fell to the floor. This was due to the way in which the house was built.
[Illustration: _May & Co., photo._] [_Northwich._