A 93-year-old woman had a lucky escape after a 30m (100ft) hole opened up in the garden of her Cornish home just a few paces from her back door.
Kathleen Angel ventured out into the garden of her home in Carbis Bay on the outskirts of St Ives after hearing an odd rumble and found to her alarm that a good chunk of it had disappeared into an old mineshaft.
Angel said: “It was a great shock. I heard something and looked up and there it was – a very deep, big hole in the middle of my garden. It is very concerning.”
A water main burst at the same time, causing water to gush out and leaving Angel’s neighbours without water inside their properties for several hours. South West Water believes the gushing water may have caused the subsidence.
Angel’s next-door neighbour Jim Ashford, 92, said: “Kathleen has not been coping well … I thought it was going to finish her off. She lives on her own, I know her son-in-law comes to visit her, but she is a very reclusive person.”
Ashford’s son, Nick, suggested that the building of two houses close to Angel’s home on Polwithen Drive may have had something to do with what happened. He said: “If Kathleen had been standing over it she would have died.”
Other residents in the area were not surprised by the sudden appearance of the mineshaft.
One elderly neighbour said: “I’ve heard they have found six different mineshafts in the area. It’s not surprising; we’re surrounded by mineshafts down here. It’s not unheard of for whole gardens to disappear.” Like much of Cornwall, old mineral mine workings lie beneath some areas of Carbis Bay.
South West Water said: “A burst water main caused by a third party was reported to us and repaired the same day.
“We received 26 calls from customers in the area reporting they had no water as a result of the burst. The gushing water caused some subsidence in the rear garden of a property on Polwithen Drive.”
The issue of building in and around St Ives is a thorny one. Locals have been campaigning against plans to build more houses on green fields in Carbis Bay.
Another group is appearing in court in Bristol next week as part of a fight against plans to develop woodland between Carbis Bay and St Ives town centre that they claim is a vital wildlife corridor.
Last year the town council floated the idea of banning people from buying second homes in the town, such was the pressure both on land and affordable housing that is being created by the popularity of St Ives.
