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Couple Mystified As Sinkhole Appears In Their Lawn Complete With Rusty Metal Steps

By Anne Sewell
Published on: 00:43 PST, Mar 10, 2016

A British couple is mystified after finding a massive sinkhole in their lawn while mowing the grass, complete with rusty metal steps leading down into the darkness.

Kevin James, 48, and his wife Emma, 45, are completely baffled after a two-meter deep sinkhole appeared while they were working in their garden. Reportedly, Emma was mowing the lawn at the time and mentioned that the particular area of the grass was “spongy” but never expected the two meter (6.5 feet) deep sinkhole to appear, complete with rusty, metal steps leading down.

According to a report in the Express, at present, the sinkhole is too small to squeeze down into, and at first, they thought it had a metal casing, but it turns out the hole is lined with concrete, with the rusty steps set into it.

Reportedly, the couple contacted the company who constructed the house back in 1984 but had no luck finding out what the hole was intended for or what it actually leads to.

Emma said, “It is really odd as there are steps which lead down but we don’t know what to and there was no lid or cover on it.”

“It just seems as though it has been forgotten about but there must be a planning record somewhere to explain what it is.”

The couple is asking for someone to come out to their home and tell them what the hole actually is so they can sort out the problem, as they don’t want to leave a hole in their front lawn.

Emma said they don’t want to simply fill it in case there is something historic down there, stating that it could, of course, just be a septic tank or something similar. She added that for the moment, it is just a mystery.

According to the Mirror, the couple has lived in the home for eight years with no previous problems with their lawn. However, in November, Emma, a school teaching assistant, noticed a dip in the grass. When she was mowing the grass, the ground felt spongy.

She said, “It was giving way as I was standing on it and there was clearly a little hole there so we got a shovel to move the grass roots and it just caved in.”

Emma said it was scary when it caved in and they all jumped back, but when looking down into the sinkhole, they couldn’t see anything. They don’t want to attempt digging down or around the hole, as they are not sure it is safe and don’t want to make the situation any worse than it already is. They also hope another sinkhole doesn’t suddenly appear in their lawn.

Despite reporting the sinkhole to the authorities, Emma says that nobody wants to know about it, even though they desperately need someone to come out and have a look to try and establish what it is and what they can do about it.

Kevin said he had contacted the local council and utility companies without success, as no one is claiming responsibility for the hole.

The couple is concerned that someone could fall down the sinkhole, as over Christmas, they had cars parked on that spot, which could easily have fallen in. As a safety precaution in the meanwhile, the couple have placed a piece of wood over the sinkhole along with a couple of traffic cones to stop people falling in.

[Photo via Flickr by StylishLensT cropped and resized/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0]

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