Just opposite Castle Chambers stood the old "Wheat Sheaf Inn." It was
built with timber to resist the dreaded subsidence, but to no purpose.
Money was frequently spent in making good the damage done. One year it
had to be raised no less than nine feet! A year after part of the
building disappeared, then the cellars went, and as a climax a horse
which was in the stable was swallowed up.
One Sunday morning a neighbouring farmer put his horse--worth L30 with
its harness--into the stable, and when he returned after doing his
business, he found that the beast had gone down a hole 15 ft. in
diameter which had suddenly opened. The house was then pulled down and
built further up the street. This shows how owners in Northwich stand to
lose both buildings and the sites of them.
Next to the "Wheat Sheaf" was a butcher's shop, which was robbed one day
of a sausage machine by the gaping earth. When it is mentioned that a
second horse disappeared, and that a minister had a narrow escape from
being swallowed, the fun of the following story will be appreciated. The
minister one day in a funny mood was making some remarks at a public
meeting about the strange disappearance of the horses and the sausage
machine. He suggested that when the people below received the first
horse they naturally wanted a sausage machine, and hence the
disappearance of that useful article. Then so much did they enjoy the
produce of the machine that they wanted a second horse, and hence the
second disappearance. At this point the chairman of the meeting rose and
gravely asked whether on one occasion they did not also want a minister
(referring to the funny man's escape), and the story-teller meekly ended
his tale.
Another extraordinary subsidence was that which took place in a house in
Tabley Street. The family were quietly seated in a room when they heard
a tremendous crash, which soon brought the neighbours out to see what
was the matter. An adjoining room was found to be minus its fireplace;
instead there was a big hole reaching to the cellar beneath. The marble
mantel-piece was smashed, and the tiled floor or hearth had fallen to
the cellar. The cellar wall of the next house had given way, and there
was great danger that the chimney would come smashing down. Soon after
the walls cracked and the floors were drawn apart, making the house more
breezy than comfortable. This was a peculiarly hard case, for the
proprietor had recently spent a good deal of money in putting the
property in order. In the end, the house and site were worth nothing.
[Illustration: _T. Birtles, photo._] [_Warrington._