The deadly day houses on a Salford street disappeared into the ground as people slept in their beds
The scene in Temple Drive in Swinton, as rescuers dug through the rubble looking for survivors. Photo colourised(Image: Mirrorpix)
A deadly disaster shocked an entire community when several homes on one street collapsed into the ground.
Commonly known as ‘Black Harry’, the Clifton Hall Tunnel was a railway tunnel that ran underneath much of Swinton and Pendlebury in Salford. Opened in 1850, it was once heavily used by freight trains travelling to and from Clifton Hall Colliery and other local collieries.
The unstable ground caused by previous mining operations complicated its construction and required regular inspections. Houses were also built directly on the land above the tunnel.
But disaster struck almost a century after it first opened. A partial tunnel collapse caused houses in Temple Drive, Swinton, to crash through the ground and into the tunnel below.
The houses were built directly above one of the tunnel’s shafts, which had previously been infilled and forgotten about.
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Just before dawn on April 5, 1953, two semi-detached houses fell through a 20-foot hole that appeared in the ground while the families inside were still asleep in their beds. Another house was split apart.
The Manchester Evening News reported houses 22, 24, and 26 “crumbled with a roar” as the railway tunnel below caved in. Families, bricks, timber, and furniture are said to have crashed through the black cavity that had appeared under their properties.
Front page of the Manchester Evening News, April 28, 1953. Clifton Hall Tunnel disaster in Swinton, Salford(Image: Manchester Evening News | British Newspaper Archive)
Neighbours raised the alarm as police cars, fire engines and ambulances raced to the street. For over seven hours, rescuers dug frantically into the rubble and down into the hole, trying to save the stricken families.
The only person to witness the houses collapse was Police Inspector Kenneth McClennan, who lived opposite.
He said: “I heard a rumble and looked out of my front room just in time to see the two houses folding inwards and disappearing into the ground, just like a giant lift.”
Enid Taylor, 33, who lived at number 12, said: “I heard a noise like an explosion. I threw on my dressing gown and coat over my night clothes and rushed into the street.
Diagram printed in the Manchester Evening News on April 28, 1953, shows how the tunnel runs beneath the three houses that collapsed(Image: Manchester Evening News | British Newspaper Archive)
“There was a haze over the rubble so that we hardly knew what had happened, but I saw Miss Watson lying near the pavement, buried up to her waist and clinging on to what looked like a parapet.
“Two other men arrived. One was Mr Geoff McCartney. I don’t know who the other was.
“It was terrible, I shall never forget it. We were all confused. Between us we tore away the rubble and pulled her out.
“Miss Watson was wonderful. She was quite calm and didn’t seem badly hurt.
“Then we saw Miss Williams standing back against the wall of her half-wrecked bedroom.
The scene in Temple Drive at Swinton, Lancashire, where the houses collapsed into the Clifton Hall Tunnel, known locally as Black Harry Tunnel. 28th April 1953(Image: Mirrorpix)
“Her bed had gone through. She was standing by the overturned wardrobe. How she missed falling I do not know. We could not reach her, but the rescuers soon brought her down.”
Enid Taylor helped rescue Agnes Williams, 77, and her maid, Frances Watson, 71, who lived at house number 26.
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Tragically, not everybody managed to escape with their lives.
Despite police, firefighters and other rescuers digging through the rubble for survivors, the bodies of Fred Potter, 87, and his 74-year-old wife, Clara, were found. They had lived at number 22.
The bodies of another family were all finally found seven hours after the collapse. Sarah Salt, 69, and her two daughters, Jean, 26, and Emily, 44, who had lived in number 24.
Sarah and her daughter Jean were found together in their bed. The bed had fallen 15ft below street level, with rescue workers digging down through mounds of wreckage to reach them.
Rescuers dug for hours through the rubble to try and find survivors(Image: Mirrorpix)
Witnessing the rescue efforts, a Manchester Evening News reporter wrote: “Rescue workers were given tea and cigarettes by neighbours, who carried trays up the street to the scene of the disaster.
“The pitiful remains of the furniture and personal belongings were handed out and loaded on special lorries to be taken away and stored in the Moorside Road school, Swinton.”
Adding: “[…] Among the fantastic jumble of wreckage, a fireman picked up a gaily decorated vase, unbroken in the collapse. The whole scene was reminiscent of war-time air raids.
“No. 26, the house which was split apart from its semi-detached neighbour, looked as if it had been chopped in two by a cleaver.”
Neighbours told the reporter they could always hear trains going under the tunnel at night.
Long closed to passengers, the line was used for one or two coal trains daily, but had been closed for three weeks for repairs and maintenance.
Several neighbours living on either side were forced to abandon their properties. At the same time, engineers ensured the safety of the rest of the tunnel.
Following the disaster, an official enquiry found that timber supports in the tunnel, intended for temporary use during construction, may have been left in place and gradually decayed in the damp conditions.
It was decided that the tunnel would be closed for good. Emergency reinforcement measures were carried out, and the tunnel was largely infilled a few years later.
Further measures were taken in 2007, the 2010s, and 2025 to reinforce the closed tunnel and fill in any remaining voids.