For so universal and expected are these subsidences, that the houses are
now all built in wooden frames with massive timber beams screwed tightly
together. This has revived a style of building common enough more than a
hundred years ago, specimens of which are often seen in country places.
If the house subsides it falls as a whole and does not necessarily
collapse. All you have to do is to use a screw-jack to raise the house,
fill in the hole, remove the jack, and sleep as before till another
subsidence, when the same operation is gone through. Castle Chambers,
however, were taken down and the ground made "sound." Twelve months
after another subsidence took place, and the result is shown in the
above photograph.
[Illustration: _May & Co., photo._] [_Northwich._