News / Clifton
40ft deep sink hole appears in Clifton on Christmas Day
There had long been rumours among residents of Canynge Square in Clifton that a series of voids were located under their street.
Those rumours were confirmed on Christmas Day when a sink hole caused by a collapsing cellar appeared just yards from some of the houses on the cul-de-sac.
The hole, estimated to be around 40 feet deep, opened up at around 10.30pm in the garden in the middle of the square, swallowing much of a large tree.
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“It sounded like a firework,” one resident of Canynge Square told Bristol24/7.
On December 20, residents held a socially distanced carol service in the exact spot the sink hole appeared in, with around 40 people taking part.
“It’s so extraordinary,” another resident said. “And then you worry that it’s a sink hole. I understand that it’s gone into some cellars, some cellars have collapsed.”
The sink hole appeared in the northern edge of the garden in the middle of Canynge Square – photo: Colin Butcher
The hole appeared close to the gate on the northern side of the garden – photo: Colin Butcher
Chair of the Canynge Square residents association, Ian Sutherland, said that during the Second World War, people who lived nearby went to the large house in the corner of Canynge Square to shelter in its cellars.
“But I didn’t believe that they would be as long as going all the way under.”
In a tweet on Saturday morning, Bristol City Council said that there is “no immediate known risk to properties or residents”, advising residents to stay away from the sink hole and not to move parked cars.
It is thought that cellars stretch from the house in the top-right of this photo – photo: Colin Butcher
Colin Butcher thought that somebody had let a firework off that had gone wrong when he heard the loud noise on the evening of Christmas Day.
“There was a huge whoosh, so I grabbed a torch and raced outside seeing if anybody would need help. And then I realised that I could also hear falling masonry.
“As I went along the bottom edge of the square, I saw that one of the trees had moved significantly. I was then able to see using the torch that a large hole had appeared just by the bottom gate of the garden.”
The tree in happier times – photo: Ian Sutherland
The sink hole’s appearance echoes a recent storyline in Coronation Street when one appeared in David Platt’s back garden.
According to Rightmove, properties in Canynge Square had an overall average price of more than £1.1m over the last year.
Canynge Square has a place in the affections of cartophiles for being the location of a ‘trap street’ in a former edition of the Bristol A to Z, which saw map makers draw the non-existent Lye Close off the square.
It was included in the map to strengthen A to Z’s case in a possible copyright dispute if another company has used their maps and passed them off as their own.
Main photo and video: Martin Booth
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