Grandfathers refuse to leave homes in sinkhole village

As cracks continue to spread around a massive sinkhole that swallowed a Surrey village high street, two grandfathers are adamant they will not leave their homes.

- BARNEY DAVIS

The first sinkhole, which appeared in Godstone on Monday evening after a water pipe burst under the road, opened up a huge cavity measuring 19m x 3m and prompted the evacuation of 30 properties. A day later, a second crater swallowed the front garden of an apartment block on the road, leaving a car precariously teetering on the edge.

Families with young children have been forced to relocate to temporary accommodation 15 miles away in Crawley, while others have taken to living in their cars. But despite receiving the same orders to evacuate, two grandfathers remain steadfast that they will not leave.

Brendon Davis, 87, was caught in a tense stand-off with council workers yesterday who were trying to evacuate him from the house his grandfather built on Salisbury Road 150 years ago. He told The Independent: “We should have been evacuated but we refused. I know my property and we have more bricks underground than overground. I’m not concerned and if everything starts falling down I have a back way I can get out.”