Re: Gardening Thread.

**bb1** Mon Feb 17, 2014 2:50 pm

http://news.sky.com/story/1212867/fifth-sinkhole-in-a-month-for-flood-hit-uk

Experts are dealing with a huge sinkhole in the back garden of a suburban property - the fifth reported in the UK this month.

Police were called to a building in Croxley Green, near Watford in Hertfordshire, at 6pm on Sunday after the 5ft-wide, 20ft deep chasm was reported.

Four homes - a house and three flats - were evacuated so the fire service and structural engineers could assess the situation in the village.

Speaking from the scene, Sky's Siobhan Robbins said: "One of the suggestions being looked at is the possibility that this might be an old well that's been exposed by the bad weather.

"The flats and a house were evacuated for a short time but they're all back in now."

A resident who lives nearby told Sky News: "A colleague of mine rents her property and she's had to have a huge hole about a metre square just to the right of her doorstep filled in recently.

"We joked that it was a sinkhole but they are popping up literally everywhere."

I'm still holding out hope for Downing Street and the plague pit....or even better, Quatermass. biggrin

**Lamplighter** Mon Feb 17, 2014 3:04 pm

Take your pick. None actually underneath Downing Street. LL

https://foursquare.com/kevan/list/plague-pit-sites-of-london

**lily** Mon Feb 17, 2014 3:12 pm

Can't argue with that.

**Sabot** Mon Feb 17, 2014 3:24 pm

Lamplighter wrote:Take your pick. None actually underneath Downing Street. LL

https://foursquare.com/kevan/list/plague-pit-sites-of-london

Perhaps we can dig one.

**Sabot** Mon Feb 17, 2014 3:26 pm

Lamplighter wrote:Take your pick. None actually underneath Downing Street. LL

https://foursquare.com/kevan/list/plague-pit-sites-of-london

Mornington Crescent, anyone?

**Lamplighter** Mon Feb 17, 2014 3:38 pm

Sabot wrote:
Lamplighter wrote:Take your pick. None actually underneath Downing Street. LL

https://foursquare.com/kevan/list/plague-pit-sites-of-london

Mornington Crescent, anyone?

There isn't one under Mornington Crescent. This is a section from a website on Ghosts of London:

Ever since the first line was opened in 1863, however, one of the major headaches facing the engineers and the army of construction workers commissioned to expand and develop the network has been the presence of huge burial pits dating back to the summer of 1665 when London was ravaged by an outbreak of bubonic plague (a.k.a. the Black Death).

Since no-one knew for certain how many of these plague pits were actually dug, nor where they were located with any degree of accuracy, it was inevitable that as the railway network continued to expand more and more of these 17th century plague pits would be disturbed often without any warning. This is exactly what happened when the Victoria Line was being constructed in the 1960s. A huge tunnel boring machine ploughed straight into a long-forgotten plague pit at Green Park traumatising several brawny construction workers on site.

To the southern end of the London Road Depot (Bakerloo Line) there are two tunnels. One exits onto the running line between Lambeth North and Elephant & Castle stations. The other is a dead-end tunnel designed to stop runaway trains. Behind the wall, however, at the end of this particular dead-end tunnel is yet another one of London’s many plague pits.

Liverpool Street Station, the London terminus of the former Great Eastern Railway, is actually built upon a plague pit as is Aldgate Station (on the Circle Line) and the Piccadilly Line between Knightsbridge and South Kensington is said to curve around "a pit so dense with human remains that it could not be tunnelled through".

**Sabot** Mon Feb 17, 2014 3:47 pm

Where is Mornington Crescent anyway? And how do they know there isn't a Plague Pit?

**Lamplighter** Mon Feb 17, 2014 3:54 pm

Sabot wrote:Where is Mornington Crescent anyway? And how do they know there isn't a Plague Pit?

It's on the way from Euston to Camden Town. LL

**Sabot** Mon Feb 17, 2014 4:12 pm

Lamplighter wrote:
Sabot wrote:Where is Mornington Crescent anyway? And how do they know there isn't a Plague Pit?
It's on the way from Euston to Camden Town. LL

Thank you, LL. My life has been undeniably enhanced by knowing that. Although I never have understood the rules of the game.

**Lamplighter** Mon Feb 17, 2014 4:16 pm

Sabot wrote:
Lamplighter wrote:
Sabot wrote:Where is Mornington Crescent anyway? And how do they know there isn't a Plague Pit?
It's on the way from Euston to Camden Town. LL

Thank you, LL. My life has been undeniably enhanced by knowing that. Although I never have understood the rules of the game.

What game? LL

**bb1** Mon Feb 17, 2014 4:20 pm

Getting lost here confused

**Sabot** Mon Feb 17, 2014 4:29 pm

Mornington Crescent. It's a game they play on one of they stupid Quizz like shows on Radio 4.

Don't ask me anymore because I have never understood it. But it's some sort of travel around the streets of London. Who gets back to Mornington Crescent first wins the game.

**bb1** Mon Feb 17, 2014 4:31 pm

Ah. I don't think I have ever listened to R4 in my life. Which explains my bafflement.

**Sabot** Mon Feb 17, 2014 4:34 pm

bb1 wrote:Ah. I don't think I have ever listened to R4 in my life. Which explains my bafflement.

It's my lifeline here. When they aren't broadcasting bloody cricket, and ethnic minority plays in Urdu.

**bb1** Mon Feb 17, 2014 9:32 pm

Another one.

http://news.sky.com/story/1213185/sixth-sinkhole-leaves-house-close-to-collapse

Three homes have been evacuated over fears one was in danger of collapse after a sinkhole - the UK's sixth in a month - opened up.

A cordon has been put in place to protect members of the public in Magdelen's Road in Ripon, North Yorkshire, after police were alerted at about 5.40pm on Monday.

No injuries have been reported at this stage and police officers are going from house to house to warn residents close to the affected properties.

Firefighters, ambulance crews, utilities engineers and structural engineers are also at the scene.

**lily** Mon Feb 17, 2014 10:03 pm

It's all okay. Cameron has it in hand and will be alerting Chris Smith...... or something?

**bb1** Mon Feb 17, 2014 10:15 pm

Cameron couldn't run a p*ss up in a brewery. Pcorneater

**lily** Mon Feb 17, 2014 10:39 pm

What a sorry state of affairs. Pcorneater

**bb1** Thu Feb 20, 2014 2:20 pm

http://news.sky.com/story/1214739/earthquake-south-west-britain-hit-by-tremor

The British Geological Survey is analysing a magnitude 4.1 earthquake centred around the Bristol Channel.

A spokesman said: "It looks like there was an earthquake originating in north Devon at 13:21 so we are just analysing it."

The tremor is thought to have occurred at a depth of three miles (5km) and lasted several seconds.

Robin Beer, on his Twitter page, wrote: "Anybody else feel the earth tremor just now?!"

Glenn Watts added: "Small tremor felt in Exeter, lasted five seconds armchairs wobbled as did the TV on its stand."

People in South Wales also reported feeling the ground shake.

One Twitter user wrote: "Earthquake tremor in Wales today. We felt it in the building in Swansea."

**lily** Thu Feb 20, 2014 2:56 pm

Was reading that you get them about every three years?

**Lamplighter** Thu Feb 20, 2014 3:05 pm

I have a friend who lived between Telford and Shrewsbury in Shropshire and she said they had quite a few minor quakes at least 2 a year. LL

**bb1** Thu Feb 20, 2014 3:16 pm

I blame fracking.

**lily** Thu Feb 20, 2014 3:18 pm

bb1 wrote:I blame fracking.

I would too.

**Lamplighter** Thu Feb 20, 2014 3:53 pm

The quakes in Shropshire are pre-fracking. LL

**bb1** Thu Feb 20, 2014 3:54 pm

Well, there definitely shouldn't be any fracking in Shropshire, then. biggrin

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