It also brought with it dramatic scenes of a sinkhole opening up – which even “swallowed” a car – on Wednesday evening on a residential street in the Abbey Hey area of Gorton, that even shockingly led to the collapse of the frontage of at least two terraced properties as a result.
But as many will know, this is far from the first time sinkholes have caused drama in the region as of late.
In 2016 alone – the year that will be remembered by Mancunians for Brexit, the electing of Donald Trump, and of course, sinkholes – at least six major sinkholes opened up across Greater Manchester.
The Mancunian Way sinkhole – which was caused by a collapsed water culvert destroying a main sewer, and quickly became a tourist attraction until it was finally fixed and reopened on 16th June – grabbed most of the headlines, but there was also a 10ft deep, 2ft wide sinkhole that appeared on Tib Street in the Northern Quarter in April, the collapse of an old brick sewer that opened one in Whitefield on 12th September, a super storm caused traffic chaos in Cheetham Hill as a crater closed Waterloo Road two days later, and several other notable instances that can all be referenced from that same year.
But now that we’ve actually highlighted the sheer scale of the problem, what actually is a sinkhole? What makes them occur? And just why do we seem to be so plagued with them here in Greater Manchester?
We had a dig around to get to the bottom of this – and this is what we found.
Amanda Webster
What are sinkholes?
If we’re going to get technical with it, the Oxford English Dictionary defines a sinkhole as: “a cavity in the ground, especially in a limestone formation, caused by water erosion and providing a route for surface water to disappear underground”, but in a nutshell, a sinkhole is essentially any hole in the ground created by erosion and the drainage of water.
Sinkholes can either be just a few feet across, or in the case of the aforementioned instances in Gorton earlier this week, large enough to swallow whole vehicles and whole buildings.
Although they’re more often than not the result of natural processes, they can also be triggered by human activity too.
Are there different types of sinkhole?
The short answer is yes – there are two basic types of sinkhole.
There’s those that are created slowly over time, which are known as cover-subsidence sinkholes, and those that appear suddenly, which are known as a cover-collapse sinkhole, and as you’d expect, it’s the latter type that creates the sort of headlines we’ve seen this week and in recent years, but both varieties are formed by the same basic mechanism.
Why do they occur?
Now, this is where the real geological explanations have to come into it.
Sinkholes mainly occur in what is known as ‘karst terrain’ – areas of land where soluble bedrock, such as limestone or gypsum, can be dissolved by water.
With cover-subsidence sinkholes, the bedrock becomes exposed and is gradually worn down over time, with the holes often becoming ponds as the water fills them in, but with a cover-collapse sinkhole, this same process occurs out of our sight.
With cover-collapse sinkholes, naturally-occurring cracks and small voids underneath the surface are hollowed out by water erosion, with a cover of soil or sediment remaining over the top, and eventually, as the hole expands over time, this cover can no longer support its own weight and suddenly collapses to reveal the cavern that’s been hiding underneath.
BBC
Pothole vs Sinkhole
There are a number of differences between a pothole and a sinkhole, that aren’t just the size of the hole and the drama that goes along with it.
It was revealed earlier this month, thanks to a recent study by Manchester-based personal injury lawyers JMW Solicitors and data from fixmystreet.com, that as of January 2021, there were 7,114 reported open pothole cases reported across Greater Manchester – a whopping 2,356 of those being in the City of Manchester itself – with the situation only predicted to get worse, so it would seem that sinkholes aren’t the only recurring issue we have in the region.
But what is the difference between the two?
To keep it brief, and without repeating too much of what has already been explained, a sinkhole is a closed natural depression in the ground surface caused by removal of material below the ground, whereas a pothole is usually a fairly small feature caused by a failure of paving materials.
Potholes are known to become more abundant in late winter and spring due to freeze-thaw damage.
Why do we get so many sinkholes in Greater Manchester?
And now we’ve come down to the crux of it.
What is it about the region of Greater Manchester that seems to be revealing so many dangerous and damaging sinkholes in comparison to others? Well, according to Dr Domenico Lombardi – a lecturer in Geotechnical Engineering at the University of Manchester, who gave his two cents on the topic after the year of sinkhole mayhem that was 2016 – our sinkholes are not a natural phenomenon as much as they are man made.
It’s all about the number of old mines, sewers, a growing population and ongoing building works that we have going on in the region – and of course, increasing rainfall.
We know by now that sinkholes occur when underground cavities collapse, causing the failure of the ground above, but in Greater Manchester, our geology is mainly sand and sandstone – which are hardly soluble – so Dr Lombardi says we need to look to old mines and collieries, which are eroded during heavy rainfall or when there is a leaking water main or sewer pipe.
In these cases an underground cavity can form super quick, and the collapse can happen in a matter of hours – as was reported by United Utilities to the case in Abbey Hey yesterday.
Dr Lombardi said: “In recent years, an increasing number of sinkholes have been observed in Greater Manchester and in other regions of the United Kingdom. Arguably, this can be attributed to the increasing number of extreme rainfall events… flooding and an ageing utility infrastructure.”
The solution?
Dr Lombardi recommends timely repairs and maintenance of piping, and a more sustainable drainage system, with more urban green areas too.
Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue Service
It’s hard to decipher for sure at this point whether the necessary action is being undertaken to prevent more dangerous and damaging sinkholes from opening up across the region – especially as the number of freak weather occurrences are becoming harder to predict – but with work now officially being underway on Manchester’s first city centre park in 100 years, and the City of Trees initiative – which will see three million trees planted across Greater Manchester as part of The Northern Forest – starting to take shape, there’s no denying that positive ground is being made.
Time will surely tell.
Feature
Five Manchester artists we’ve been listening to this month | June 2025
Danny Jones
Hello there. That greeting may be giving Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars vibes, and we can’t lie, we have listened to some cantina music while working this month… but not as much as we’ve been immersing ourselves in more new Manchester artists.
You should know the drill by now, and it is very much a what-it-says-on-the-tin scenario, but every few weeks, we round up some of the music – all crucially hailing from the Greater Manchester area – that we’ve been listening to of late.
We don’t discriminate when it comes to genre either. There’s only one simple rule: if it’s good, then we listen to it and then, hopefully, so do you.
Get your playlists at the ready.
Five Manc music artists we’ve been listening to recently
1. Arkayla
First up for June are relative newcomers Arkayla, whose name is inspired by “a terrible Oasis demo” from 1991 (their words, not ours – thought it is…) of the same name, a.k.a. ‘I Will Show You’, in which describe Liam Gallagher’s now legendary as once sounding “like a dodgy Ian Brown impressionist.”
However, there’s nothing dodgy about these lot and, thankfully, they’re in an era when you don’t have to hand out tapes recorded in the Boardwalk basement on the street to be heard. The Manchester band, which only formed in 2020, may be Standing on the Shoulder of Giants, but they’ve already got a sound.
There’s an unmistakable British indie element to them and hints at everything from The Kooks to The Lathums, but most notably, there are ’60s guitar notes and some real maturity already. Standouts include ‘Ella Malone’, the acoustic version of ‘Lost In a Valentine’, where the lead singer, Cal Blakebrough, really shines, and ‘Rita’ is such an addictive track.
They don’t get more unknown, undiscovered, but sure to be up-and-coming than iNNAFIELD, who are a female-fronted psychedelia-forward five-piece with roots in Brighton but building a career in 0161. Having recently shone at The Deaf Institute playing a support slot at Academy 1, they have our interest.
If a glimpse of lead singer Jessie Amy Leask’s curly hair, 70s belts and long, flowing skirts plants Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac in your mind, you’d be right in thinking so; a listen to their other live tracks scattered across their socials confirms there’s plenty of other influences going on too, though.
Now, they’ve only got one proper recording out on Spotify called ‘Tell Me What’s On Your Mind’, but we’ve had it popping up on our algorithms everywhere, and we can see why: there’s soft, twinkly strumming, soft almost sleepy vocals before a nice big breakout at the end. Glorious stuff.
No, not that one, the Princess of Monaco isn’t back from the dead, but ‘r Grace Kelly, who is based right here in Greater Manchester, is playing her part in the ongoing country revival taking place across the music world, offering her soulful voice and faux American-folk vibes to our ears.
She may not be a Mancunian by birth, having moved from New Zealand to our shores back in 2022, and although the weather change might have been a big sea change for her, there’s no culture shock to be found in her style; from the audio to the aesthetic, it still somehow feels pretty authentic.
Uplifting acoustic guitars, drum brush strokes, solos, Southern-twang harmonies – you name it, all the ingredients are there. The thing is, if you spend enough time immersing yourself in a genre, you can still pull off tracks like ‘Carry On’, ‘San Jose’ and the intimate ‘For Us To Change’.
We’re really lane switching when it comes to genre this month; maybe it’s because festival season is in full swing and we’re just being exposed to so much different stuff in a short space of time, all we know is we’re not complaining about it.
And neither should you, especially when you’ve got names like hip-hop, grime, soul and flag-flying Afrobeats rising star, Prido, being platformed. Blending all the above with R’n’B and a sprinkling of not just Northern but easily detectable Manc slant, it makes his music stand out in the ever-thriving space.
‘Free Ur Mind’ was the first track we ever heard, so we’ve struggled to shake that as our favourite, but ‘DND’ is a supremely dancey but chill example of laid-back of the genre that you need in your mixes this summer, and we also have a soft spot for his verse on the sensual ‘Lifeboat’ by Prima.
Last but not least on our list of new Manchester artists for this June, we’ve got local DJ Josh Baker, whose name you might recognise from the headlines surrounding Parklife 2025, as his set was unfortunately cancelled due to problems out of his control.
Festival-goers flocked to The Matinee Stage for a highly anticipated back-to-back bill of Baker followed by Dutch counterpart Chris Stussy, both of whom have thrilled some of the biggest club crowds in the country – sadly, he didn’t get to do so this time. That being said, we thought we’d give him a shout-out.
We’ll confess to only having got around to his discography following this news, but ‘Back It Up’, ‘Something To Me’, and ‘You Don’t Own Me’ with Prospa and RAHH are all bangers. We’re looking forward to listening to more.
And that should just about do you; there are five artists and, at the very least, 15 new tracks for you to give a go – there should be at least of few of them you like.
But, let’s be honest: be it unheard, new, current, old or anything in between, Manchester music very rarely ends up being filed in the skippable category.
Then again, you can always check out last month’s list of Manc artists from last month and see if you get a better hit ratio.
Featured Images — Prido (via Facebook)/Arkayla (via X)/Grace Kelly (via Facebook)
Feature
You can sleep in a luxury train carriage at an old railway station in Greater Manchester
Thomas Melia
There’s an Airbnb listing in Delph where you can stay in a classic converted train carriage, and it’s even situated in an old train station, so someone buy my ticket ASAP.
Get ready to have the best train experience of your life, as the only cancellation you have to worry about is booking the day off work.
The Carriage at The Old Station is a two-person character property in Delph, Saddleworth that offers you the chance to live out your vintage fantasy by stepping back in time on a luxury static train coach.
It may be situated at an old station, but the interior is refreshing and light with mint blue beams, fuchsia cushions and a royal red carpet and curtains.
As well as a majestic interior, this carriage has an equally impressive amount of amenities, including a Bluetooth sound system, board games and its own indoor fireplace.
This Airbnb is fairly new too, with only 44 reviews to its name – the first only dating back to September of last year; don’t say we don’t find you some absolute gems.
Inside the Airbnb that’s an old converted train carriage.The interior of this Airbnb listing is bold and impressive.
One user even stated, “We regularly stay in five-star locations and this surpassed five-star easily! We highly recommend a stay here.”
While another opened her review with three simple adjectives that we also feel perfectly sum up this train carriage property perfectly: “Opulent, indulgent, extravagant”.
It should come as no surprise that this place is beautiful inside and out, as in the description, host of the property Nigel states he’s a retired designer.
The train carriage stay is also close to a proper country pub, The Old Bell Inn, as well as the Diggle canal walk if you fancy a stroll and a pint before tucking into bed in your old train carriage for the night.
Even the bathroom has pops of colour throughout.You could stay in this train carriage at an old train station.
If you’re after boarding The Carriage at The Old Station and having a fabulous overnight stay or mini holiday of your own, you can find the Airbnb listing and everything you need to know HERE.
Emily Sergeant -
22nd January 2021 
