II.—On a Sudden Sinking of the Soil in a Field at Lexden in Essex

Extract

In the month of May, 1861, there occurred a curious subsidence of the soil in a field on the ‘Malting Farm’ at Lexden in Essex. The cavity thus produced was about twenty-five yards in circumference, of an elliptical form, and about twenty feet in depth, with the sides slightly overhanging. The subsidence took place quite suddenly; some workmen, who were in the field in the forenoon, finding the pit fresh formed on their return from dinner. The ground in which the pit is situated consists of a slightly rising bank of valley-gravel, and is about fifty yards to the south of the little River Colne, which runs past the spot, and gives its name to the ancient town of Colchester. The surface of the field cannot be more than five or six feet above the stream when full.