| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"stoney" |
| Date: |
03 Mar 2007 02:35:44 PM |
| Object: |
Minefield for council as town asks what lies beneath |
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2025604,00.html
Minefield for council as town asks what lies beneath
· Engineers urge mapping of Reading chalk mines
· Labyrinth could comprise up to 40 caverns
Steven Morris
Saturday March 3, 2007
The Guardian
You tramp through a muddy copse, remove the old manhole cover and
clamber down a narrow steel ladder. At first it feels dank and the rungs
of the ladder slippery but soon the clay soil turns to a gleaming white
and at the bottom there is a wide cavern with crumbly walls that bounces
the torchlight back and forth.
These are the chalk mines of Reading - exciting adventures for
caver-types who like exploring underground nooks, but increasingly
worrying to the residents of the town who live above the network.
A labyrinth of mines was created in and around Reading from the 18th
century on to extract chalk for bricks. But over the next 200 years
people forgot where most of the mines were and houses were built over
many of them. Now mysterious holes have opened up across the town. Walls
give off odd creaking sounds as foundations shift and, in extreme
circumstances, bits of houses have vanished.
Millions of pounds have been spent shoring up the properties and streets
that have been obviously affected but this week engineers warned that
more needed to be done to map the forgotten mines.
The borough council has a firm idea of the positions of several old
workings but it is feared there could be as many as 40 mines beneath the
town. The authorities are in a quandary. If they go looking for more
mines they may cause panic, prompt house prices to fall and find
themselves having to find millions of pounds to make areas safe. If they
do not go looking, disaster could follow.
In the suburb of Emmer Green, above the Hannover Mine cave complex
visited by the Guardian, residents are tetchy rather than panicky. "I'm
surprised you are interested," said Diana Hartrup, who lives close to
the mine entrance.
Ms Hartrup, however, was herself interested enough to allow civil
engineers on to her land a few weeks ago to try to work out what is
going on underneath. She insists she is not worried. "We've been here
since 1967 and never had a problem. And the mine has been here for two
or three hundred years. It's not a worry."
Another local, Steve Jones, said: "Oh, you've come about the mine. We
don't really like to talk about it. It's a bit like our guilty secret."
On the opposite bank of the Thames in the Field Road area, 30 homes were
evacuated in the winter of 2000 after the fronts of two houses caved
into an old chalk mine. Some families had to stay away for two years
while engineers worked out what had happened and made them safe. The
area is still officially earmarked a "derelict land clearance area" as
well as a conservation area.
David Warner, who had to move out of his house with his wife and three
children, recalls going into his garden to find a hole 3m square and 9m
deep. "I was very surprised, to say the least. Up until that time we had
no idea the house was built on mines."
The level of anxiety being experienced by other residents depends on
what colour their homes are on a survey map of the neighbourhood. If
their home is in red it is built on mine workings. If a vivid orange,
then their property is "probably affected" by mine workings. If
turquoise they "may possibly" be affected.
Joe Doak's house on Field Road is turquoise. "The council has done such
a lot of work here that we don't feel under threat. One thing I have
been surprised at is that they didn't seem to tap in to local knowledge.
There are older people who remember where mines were - some played down
them as children," he said.
Clive Edmonds, of the civil engineers Peter Brett Associates who have
worked with Reading council over the chalk mines, said they tended to be
quite stable when they were built, but 150 or 200 years on could break
down.
Peter Brett Associates is continuing to search for new mines and
believes there could be as many as 40 - a figure which surprises the
council. Mr Edmonds warned they could not be ignored as they posed a
risk to property and even to life.
Happily for residents in Field Road, their area is probably one of the
safest in the town. Mr Warner said: "They've done so much work here now
that we feel safe. Perhaps the rest of the town will fall away and we'll
be left here like a little island."
A Reading council spokesman said: "The council is aware that academic
research, independent of the council, is ongoing into the possibility of
further mines . The council will obviously keep a close eye on the
results of this research."
--
Fundies and trolls are cordially invited to
shove a wooden cross up their arses and rotate
at a high rate of speed. I trust you'll
be 'blessed' with a plethora of splinters.
.
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