Complex sentence: In his capacity as the County Surveyor of Nottinghamshire Hooley was passing a tarworks in 1901 when he noticed that a barrel of tar had been spilled on the roadway and that, in an attempt to reduce the mess, someone had dumped gravel on top of it.
Split into simpler sentences: In his capacity as the County Surveyor of Nottinghamshire he was passing a tarworks in 1901. He noticed that a barrel of tar had been spilled on the roadway and, in an attempt to reduce the mess, someone had dumped gravel on top of it.