‘No risk to residents’ Sinkhole swallows mature tree after storm
CROWDS gathered to look at a sinkhole that opened up in a Bristol residential street on Christmas Day and swallowed a mature tree.
People were flocking to Canynge Square in Clifton yesterday according to a resident who lives with a direct view of the large hole.
Since Saturday evening, with rain brought by Storm Bella lashing down, more objects have been consumed by the hole, which is situated on the edge of the green in the middle of the residential square - actually shaped like a triangle - between the houses.
A gate, stonework, a beech hedge and the edge of the road have now toppled into the collapsed vault.
Bristol City Council officers cordoned off the hole on Saturday and later installed fencing around it. The council said on Twitter that officers were “confident there is no risk to property or residents”.
The authority will be sending engineers to look at it daily and sent a tree surgeon to carry out work on nearby trees as a precaution ahead of last night’s bad weather.
A spokesperson for Bristol City Council said: “Engineers continue to monitor the site and report no further health and safety concerns since the cavity appeared.
“Whilst the stormy weather overnight has blown some debris into the cavity we remain confident there is currently no risk to residents.
“Secure fencing is in place around the site and engineers will carry out further safety checks today and over the coming days.”
Resident Colin Baker, in his early 60s and who has lived in Canynge Square for about 15 years, said: “Lots of tourists are looking at it.
“There has been a steady flow of onlookers.
“We were apprehensive that one of the other trees would come down, which hasn’t happened because the tree surgeons did some work yesterday to tidy the fallen tree up to stop it pushing on the other one.
“The only thing that has happened is that the very edge of the roadway where there was a gate to the garden and the beech hedge and the stonework have disappeared into the hole as well.
“The very edge of the beech hedge was hanging over the edge of the hole where the gate to the garden was, so that was gradually cracking away from the road then at some point overnight that finally let go and dropped into the hole.”
Mr Baker, who works as a computer system architect, said he had reported the tree collapse to police. He said it sounded like “a loud firework”.
He added that he was impressed by the response from the fire, police and ambulance services after the call was made.
Canynge Square is lined with grand houses, many built in the late Georgian style, some with underground vaults and basements.
Dominic Hogg, 55, an environmental consultant who has lived on the street for 10 years, said: “Residents on the Square heard it. It was quite a big noise.”
Police were called and cordoned off the scene with tape.
“It was quite strange. The tree is just gone, straight down, vertically down,” said Mr Hogg.
“I suppose fortunately as far we can see, nothing was damaged and no people were hurt. It’s just sad that the tree, a lovely tree, is obviously gone.
“It’s a pretty mature tree and it was resting on top of a couple of sort of arched vaults and it looks as though they have just given way.”
The South West was hit by heavy downpours and strong winds as Storm Bella passed over the area during the Christmas weekend.
Weather warnings were issued across the region.
In 2007 a hole appeared close to the area, in a garden on Clifton Park Road, and the council found a roughly-made shaft 6ft deep which appeared to connect with tunnels or cellars under the back gardens of houses on Canynge Square.
Canynge Square dates back to the first half of 19th century, but there was a massive speculative building boom going on in Clifton in late 1700s, with many projects never completed. So foundations and cellars were dug for houses which were then abandoned only to be built later to different plans in slightly different places, or there may have been cellars made for the original houses of which some might have been blocked off. Cellars were of importance to our ancestors; a cellar that was cool and dry was of immense value for storage.