241
ON A RECENT SUBSIDENCE AT MUCKING,
ESSEX.
By T. V. HOLMES, F.G.S., F. Anthrop. Inst., Vice-President, E.F.C.
[Read February 24th, 1906.]
ON January 12th (1906), our Secretary, Mr. W. Cole,
received a letter from Mr. S. J. Squier, of the Rookery,
Stanford-le-Hope, Essex, stating that "in the middle of one of
our fields in Mucking parish, the surface has dropped in, leaving
a big circular hole like a great well, measuring 25 feet across and
20 feet in depth." Mr. Squier added that in the fields near
appeared, in a line, hollows suggesting the former existence
there of similar holes, though he could not find anyone in the
neighbourhood who remembered the occurrence of anything of
the kind in past years.
Mr. Cole having kindly forwarded the letter to me, I wrote to
Mr. Squier, who was good enough to arrange to show me this
strange hole on January 24th. Accordingly, on that day, I
visited the spot in Mr. Squier's company. Its position is about
400 yards north-east of Collingwood Farm, which appears on
the six-inch to the mile ordnance map (84 N.W.) at the north-
eastern corner of Mucking Heath (see map). It was still circular
in shape, though its diameter was slightly greater than when it
was first seen, being a little more than 30 feet. The fall of
material from its sides had left them still vertical, though it had
reduced the depth of the pit from 20 feet in the centre to about 16
feet, and at the sides to 11 or 12 feet. The material seen at the
bottom was simply that which had tumbled in from the sides. The
lowest bed visible consisted of yellow sand, of which a thickness
of about six feet was seen. Above it was about two feet of sand
somewhat more clayey, containing small pebbles, and here and
there fragments of shells, there being no definite line of separa-
tion between it and the sand beneath. The surface bed consisted
of reddish-brown clay, precisely like Loudon Clay which has
lost the bluish tint characteristic of it at a certain depth.
Leaving this remarkable hole, we proceeded in a direction a
little north of west, traversing the field on the western side of
Witches Lane. There, Mr. Squier pointed out four circular
depressions, with sloping sides, as probably marking the spots at
which subsidences similar to that just seen had once occurred.
S