The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1866-12-08 00:00:00

°HADLEY HEATH.

CHOIVNING•IX AT New TOWN.—To many of our readers
the term .• crowning-in " will be unintelligible. It is a
Bieck Country phrase, and means literally a subside:lc
O r sinking in of a certain part of the surf., of the laud
caused by mining operations. We lately recorded one
which occurred only. short distance from this one, both
being caused by the No. 15 Colliery, belonging to the
Earl of Dudley. The crowning-in took place in the yard
of a public-house kept by Matthew Trumann. The house
tuts beau drawn by the sinking in of the land for some
months, but nothing serious was expected ; and, as is

useal in such canes. delete iron cramps were placed roam.
it. On Tuesday evening, however, about half past six
o'clock, Mrs. Tromans having occa don to go into the
bac:. kitchen for a Cup tp lilt for a customer, sees alarmed
II hearing a mos awful erish and tumbling in the yard.
Her shrieks alarmed the coolpithy si:io were drinking
there. and they ran oat, and to their horror ea* a great
hole near the leek ef the house, down which the .nr.
rounding earth was belting with an nieful roar. But almost
immediately the sulphur in the hole cettglit fire, nth: sliver
shot odt a lathe the Volume of which WAN no thiek as the
body of the house. The dairies commnideated to the
back of the house, and net on fire the windese fraMes,
&c., and burnt the floor and lots of clothing in the bitek
room. A messenger was despateliesl to Dudley for aid.
and soon the District Fire Engine arrived, and succeed d
in stopping the deviustations it the fiery element in the
house, and put out also the flame in the hole. Superin-
tendent Burton, with a small hand engine, assisted row
siderably in putting out the fire. The hole, meanwhile,
continued to enlarge, and soon the floor and walls of ti e
hick cellar had sunk down fall forty yards in this chasni.
Barrels of ale, porter, eider. bottles of ginger beer. cups,
tubs, measures—all sank, and were buried beneath tuns
of rock and soil. The sides continuing to fall in, the
! brewhonse, with two large toilers, the grate, and lots of
other things, ell went down. The furniture and articles
of clothing were got out as soon as f.isible, but were
sadly injured by the fire and wider. A large quantity of
ale, too, was got Lint of the front cellar. All night long
the soil, &c., continued to fill in, going right down into
the workings of the pit, mid at eight o'clock on Wednes-
day morning the house, and an old cottage that adjoined
it, fell with a mighty crash, the strain on the iron cramps
bursting them right through. It was expected that the
house would fall in on Tuesday night, but two props
held it up and they going down, the house was obliged to
follow. The bole, when first discovered, was abont the
size of a pit shaft, and was between GO and 70 yards di op.
On the Wednesday night its eireuinference, was, however,
between 50 and 60 yards, and its depth between 20 and
30 yards. Hundred* visited the spot on Tuesday night,
and on the Wednesday. Mr. Troinans' loss is estimated
at neariy £4OO, and there is every probability that lie will
not be able to obtain one.half or one-quarter that Sullll as
remuneration from the agent of the Earl of Dudley.

Sc- We beg to intimate to our numerous friends and
readers in Cradley Heath, that the branch °Mee for the
Ohm re, for that district, is at Mr. T. Homo's, Printer
and Stationer, Five Ways, Cradle,/ Heath, where adver-
tisements will ho received up to seven o'clock on Friday
evening.