A COLLAPSED sewer caused part of a Darwen road to sink in 1979.

A large hole emerged in Northcote Street, in March, the second incident of its type in the town in the last three weeks.

Workmen were seen shoring up the hole, which measured 5ft square by 7ft deep, while investigations were carried out.

Blackburn Council were alerted when a small area of the road started to drop and the area was fences off to all traffic.

If that wasn't bad enough, a larger hole appeared when work started on digging to find the cause of the first hole.

Just weeks earlier, the lower part of Redearth Road was closed to traffic for a week because another collapsed sewer caused a large hole to appear in the road near the junction with Sudell Road.

At the time a spokesman for Blackburn Council said the collapse had been caused by an 18-inch earthenware sewer pipe which had clay puddle points.