Sadly a supposed to be kept secret has come to light this week.
Prior to building works on the Girnhill Estate you will have noticed many holes drilled and pipes left sticking out. This was to inject grout/ concrete in to various underground imperfections. However it appears during the surveys that a number of huge underground cavities had shown up on scans. This is a report about 3 particular holes that has come to light.
Hole 1 & 2. A large boring machine was brought in to drill 2 locations opposite Ronnie’s old house. The first hole found a stone cap over the top of a large bell pit. This was drilled open and filled. The second hole was the same but when the drill broke through the stone cap the top collapsed and almost took the whole machine with it. The hole was recorded at measuring 16 metres deep to the surface from the rubble filled bottom. A big hole by any standard! Amazingly it had a house sat on it for years.
Hole 3 is most interesting. Hole 3 was a break in to a tunnel. The tunnel ran under Ronnie’s garden and on towards Nostel Priory. Is this another dot on the tunnel map?
Such a shame none of this is being preserved for a number of reasons. Surely it is of historical interest and holds possible tourism chances for Featherstone. The only plus is that grouting was supposed to be every 3 metres but was apparently done every 6 metres. Perhaps the tunnels will be exposed when the houses sink?
