Hole lot of trouble as Finedon tunnel reappears - county council are looking into it

A verge in Finedon that first collapsed in 1976 has again subsided, revealing an old railway tunnel.

The 4ft hole in the grass in front of bungalows in Harrowden Lane re-emerged last week with residents informing the highways department at Northamptonshire County Council.

Staff visited the site and filled in the hole but left a temporary barrier around the repair.

Paul Groom, 47, who lives in Harrowden Lane in the house where he grew up, had been aware of the potential danger of the verge after he was warned by his mum Maureen.

He said: "The hole appeared last week and a neighour rang the council. It was on the grass verge. It's definitely dangerous.

"They came with a van and I told them they would need more and they came with a lorry.

"It's not the first time its happened because my mum told me about it before. I phoned her and said 'you'll never guess what - the hole's back'."

Mr Groom was a small child when in 1976 the hole first appeared. His mum Maureen was horrified to discover it as he had been playing on the verge hours before.

A disused tunnel, once used for a narrow-gauge railway to transport iron ore, has its entrance in a field adjacent to Harrowden Lane and leads to nearby Hall Lane. It is believed that the roof of the tunnel has collapsed due to subsidence.

Covered over, the hole reappeared in 1980 - as reported by the Evening Telegraph - when the then Wellingborough Council chief engineer Eric Carpenter said that the tunnel should have been filled in but that it would cost 'too much money'.

In the article he also reassured the public that the tunnel was 'good for at least another 100 years.'

The stretch of the tunnel had been filled with rubbish but subsidence had caused holes to appear.

Mrs Groom, 78, said: "I always thought it would happen again. There was a 20ft drop to the bottom of the tunnel.

"When it first happened Paul was three-years-old. If he'd fallen in he would have been dead. That's why I was so concerned.

"The entrance is in the field. They tried to block it up but children and even I could get in there with ease. We would have to crawl in and get the cat."

The grass verge is used by horse riders, dog walkers and hikers, to park cars and provide access to delivery vehicles including skip lorries.

A spokesman for Northamptonshire County Council said: “We have been made aware of the hole in Finedon verge and, as far as we are aware, it does not currently pose a threat to nearby residences or highways. We and our associated partners are in the process of investigating further.”

Local historian Francis Terry, author of Ironstone Quarries, Railways and Tramways around Finedon, confirmed the tunnel was one of many constructed in and around the town.

He said: "It's more of a long bridge than a tunnel. It was built in 1883 by an entrepreneur called Neilson. It crossed Harrowden Lane and led to Hall Drive but he didn't do it very well. He built a railway up the hill and tapped the iron ore deposits. It wasn't used for very long - only a few months.

"Finedon is riddled with quarries and tunnels. There was a public outcry in the late 1920s when some children got lost in one of the tunnels and they were filled in."