A jeweller had the novel experience of seeing his fireplace sink below
the level of the floor and his mantel-piece half buried. Even the police
station was not safe. It was built at a cost of L2,000, repairs to the
extent of L300 were soon needed, but it became so bad that it had to be
abandoned.
There are several streets in Northwich where the houses are simply
tobogganing into each other, and all over the place are houses which
have been condemned and now are closed. One street became suddenly
several feet wider than it used to be, for one side was sliding away. It
was afterwards found that the houses on that side had moved three feet
from their foundations, which were discovered under the kerb stones of
the pavement! The Marston Road sank 15 feet in forty years, and at last
had to be abandoned owing to a huge chasm many feet in width which
formed across it.
It is only fair that even the buildings of the salt works in the town
are not exempt from these subsidences, which, indeed, are due to their
activity. One photograph is given which shows a pumping shaft in a
serious epileptic fit, which ended in its total collapse. Some time ago
the curious sight might have been seen of a large wall travelling from
three to four feet away from the building of which it was once a part.
And in several of the salt works I found the walls parting in all
directions, the floors in the shape of an S, and whole blocks of
buildings waiting for the house-breaker.
One of the most remarkable features of these subsidences is that no loss
of human life has occurred. A girl with a child was passing the "Wheat
Sheaf Inn" on the occasion of a subsidence and was nearly swallowed up,
but not quite. The only loss of life was that of the two horses already
mentioned and a cow. A man was driving a cow through the streets and
turned to speak to a friend. On looking round he found that his cow had
been swallowed up. He was assured that the animal would be pumped up
with the brine at some point, but the beast was never seen again!
The subsidences already mentioned are almost invariably caused by the
pumping away of the brine. Other subsidences are caused by the falling
in of old and disused salt mines which have not been properly worked, or
worked too near the surface. The result of these subsidences is
generally seen in the formation of huge lakes of water called "flashes."
One of these covers 100 acres, and is 40 to 50 feet deep. They cover
what were formerly fields, and the ensuing loss was very great.
One gentleman had to make a new road to his property because 100 acres
were under water, and other areas were badly damaged by subsidences;
another built a house costing L6,000, and the largest offer he could get
for it was L1,500--it had been so much injured by subsidence.
The area over which these subsidences take place is about two square
miles. Some years ago the property in Northwich was valued at L311,885,
but the depreciation on it was valued at one _third_, or L102,945--the
annual loss being L5,147. When the matter was brought before the House
of Commons it was stated that damage had been done to no less than 892
buildings. But the number to-day, if it could be estimated, would be
infinitely larger. These 892 buildings comprised five public buildings,
15 manufacturing works, 21 slaughter-houses and stables, 34 ware-houses
and workshops, 41 public-houses, 140 shops, and 636 houses and cottages.
In ten years the pumping up of brine had excavated from beneath beneath
Northwich a space large enough to form a ship canal from Northwich to
Warrington 150 feet wide and 30 feet deep. And a well-known authority
declares that the subsidences during the present century form an
excavation very much more extensive than was required for the Manchester
and Liverpool Ship Canal. For the subsidences correspond with the amount
of salt taken from the earth.
[Illustration: _May & co._] [_Northwich._