Mines Mayhem
On the face of it there is little to be seen of the Combe Down Stone Mines infilling operation above ground, but if you live on the fringes of the mines area in places like Combe Road and North Road, no one is able to say with any certainty what the ground at the edge of the mine under your house is like. Stabilisation here is very much a 'voyage of discovery'.
During the last few days we have felt some of the real impact that has been visited on many people on the fringes of the mines in Combe Down over the past couple of years. Here at 22 we have had some new cracks appear and those already in evidence widen, but some of the inconvenience and disruption visited on our neighbours has been absent - until now! Even now we have not had too many problems inside, but outside our garden fits in well with the mess of neighbours gardens. The miners are drilling to verify whether houses here have been stabilised and in so doing they have reduced the garden to a sticky, muddy mess.
However, we are conscious that this has to be done if we are to receive one of the coveted "Completion Statements", signifying that stabilisation is complete. The chaos and mess that the gardens are in, to the west of Combe Road from the junction with North Road to the lane going to number 32, has to be seen to be believed. It is a leap of faith to believe that the gardens will ever recover, but we are assured (and I believe it) that soon everything will be back to normal. For us that means the fence between us and our neighbours , the broken pane of glass in the greenhouse replaced and the surface of the garden restored.
However, the inconvenience and disruption that many local people have suffered must be worth the end result of the stabilisation of the Mines.
The photo shows the state of our back garden today!
posted by Roger Symonds at Wednesday, January 23, 2008
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