184 NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
Subsidence at Grays.—"Strange Earth Fall at
Grays." "A remarkable subsidence has taken place in the
back garden of one of the cottages in Southend Road, Grays, the
earth having dropped to a depth of twenty feet, exposing a pit
sixteen feet in diameter. It is believed that the fall is due to the
existence of a subterranean passage connected with the Dene
Holes, which are situate in the immediate vicinity. On Monday
H=Position of Subsidence. P.A. = Palmer's Avenue. W.L.=Whitehall
Lan. S.R.=Southend Road. C.R.=Chadwell Road.
Scale 6 inches=1 mile.
the task of filling in the hole was completed, 150 tons of
material having been required. During the night, however, the
ground again sank deeper than before, and much alarm is felt for
the safety of the cottages."—Essex County Chron., 29th Nov., '07.
I am indebted to our president, Mr. Miller Christy, for the
information contained in the above newspaper cutting. On
visiting Grays on December 10th I found that the position of
the subsidence was at the back of the row of houses on the
eastern side of the Southend Road, and north of its junction
with the road to Grays Cemetery and Chadwell, as shown in the
tracing from the ordnance map (6 inches to a mile). It was
then nearly filled up, and though the cause of the subsidence
remains doubtful, its exact position seems well worth recording.
—T. V. H.