This isn't a mine...

[bunn]

My mother's house is, strictly speaking, in Devon, not Cornwall, but it is close enough to Cornwall to fall into what it is tempting to call the Cornish Emmenthal Zone - ie, the area that is riddled with subterranean tunnels all over the place.  So, of course when she bought her house, she had a mining search done, to check it wasn't on a mineshaft.  Unfortunately,  the gamble you take when you live on a Swiss cheese, is that your house isn't on a mine that was dug before about 1820, when it occurred to someone that actually making records of where all the holes were might be a good idea.    Anything dug before that time is mostly unrecorded, and may leap out and bite you on the bum.

The parking area outside her house had 'sunk' a bit, and been filled in, and now it has 'sunk' again, and she was all poised to have it filled again, when a helpful relative of the builder pointed out that actually, when the ground keeps disappearing in Swiss Cheese land, it might be worth investigating.  So, she got the Cornish Mining guy round, and he has poked spikes into the ground, and thinks there is probably a Shaft.

So now she is being advised that she needs to get the Cornish mining people to come and drill, at a cost of two grand (plus a skip for the debris, and making good afterwards, whatever THAT is likely to involve).  And her insurance company say 'do nothing as the shaft is not actually under the house' - which seems something of a leap of faith, and surely an area right outside the house and surrounded by it on two sides, that you walk past to get to the front door, is close *enough* to the house to be at the very least, something of a worry.   The mining bloke has told her not to walk over it!

Note to self: find out name of insurance company so that if my Mum and her house disappear into the Shaft, I will know who to blame.  

Comments

[seascribe.livejournal.com]

Yeeeeeek! That is terrifying. Insurance company should be forced to come out and walk all over the sinky bits.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I think so too!

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

Insurance company should be forced to come out and walk all over the sinky bits.

Hmmm, I'd go with "they should be forced to come and park their very expensive and shiny car on the sinky bit. *Then* walk around on it to get to the house".

Edit: And prove it's safe by jumping up and down on a pogo stick.

[ozisim.livejournal.com]

Hmm... Well I'd say it's worth investigation at least so you can add it to your zombie plan.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. It could be a vital line of defence! Like a moat!

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Eek! Sounds scary. I think the Insurance Man should be forced to walk to the front door and stand there for a long time, waiting to explain in person how confident he is that the house isn't about to disappear into the abyss.

I am now wondering about the conversation Sauron had with his insurers, after the Mordor Mining Chap discovered the Crack of Doom in his grounds.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

If Sauron had to argue at enormous length with his insurers about the Cracks of Doom, you can kind of see why he eventually ended up as one gigantic furious red Eye. I think we've all had *that* feeling... :-D

[chainmailmaiden]

Hmm, I think I'd be for investigating as there's no proof where the shaft starts and ends at this point. I'm presuming from what the insurance company is saying they're not likely to pay out for any remedial work though?

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Apparently the insurance company will get involved if the house had cracks in it as a result of the presence of the Shaft, but they are arguing as it's only affecting space outside the house (at the moment) it's Not Their Problem.

Mum is undecided whether to pay for it herself, and remove the worry that the milkman or the postman or herself will one day plummet to their doom, or just get it filled again, re-route the drainage a bit and wait and see if the house does crack.

[rustica.livejournal.com]

Wow. I wonder whether there's a local lawyer with experience of such things, with whom a profitable hour might be spent? I have no idea what the ramifications, financial or otherwise, might be.

Also, yikes.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

She's got on to her local councillor, who has been great and has said 'don't do anything yet, we will get someone from the Environment Agency to come look at it first'.

On the less optimistic side, I have just been looking at old Ordinance Survey maps, and have found one from 1884 which shows a shaft called 'Taylor's Shaft' that was very nearby and is said to be 720feet deep. Eek!

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

You'd think the insurance company would want to know whether a house is built over a mine shaft... Perhaps they don't want to risk waking a balrog?

I hope the EA are able to reassure your mum.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

The latest is that my sister has found a helpful geophysicist who is either a devotee of mining history, or possibly a closet Balrog-hunter, and is going to scan the area with ground-penetrating radar, in return for cake!

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Eeeek!!! Terrifying indeed....