Ten-metre-deep dene hole opens up in Gravesend garden

Melanie and Barry Andrews, who live in Milton Hall Road, have spoken of their shock after the hole, measuring 10 metres deep and one-and-a-half metres wide, appeared overnight on February 4.

It opened up just hours after the couple's young daughters, Taylor, seven, and Casey, five, had been playing on the spot where a 'dark shadow' had appeared.

Barry Andrews with the huge hole in his back garden

Mrs Andrews, 40, said: "It had snowed the night before when we noticed a spot where the snow wasn't settling as well, the girls were jumping over it and playing by it."

The next morning fire fighter, Mr Andrews, told his wife that they had a "big problem."

She said: "Barry's job means that he doesn't really get flustered, it takes a lot to knock him back but he came upstairs and said, 'I think you want might to come outside and have a look.'"

The Andrew's employed a surveyor who confirmed that the hole was a dene hole which may once have been a man-made structure consisting of small chalk caves entered by a vertical shaft.

The dene hole

The couple are now in the process of finding out who they need to contact in order to have the hole filled.

Mrs Andrew's said: "We called the council but as it's private land they can't do anything so we are talking to our insurer and to surveyors.

"We need someone to come and assess how deep it is and see if it leads anywhere as the earth must have gone somewhere.

"We have been here ten years, it seems funny that it's just appeared now.

"I would like to wake up and just for it to be gone to be honest.

"We can't let the girls go outside and they're terrified that the dog is going to fall down it."