A BARNSLEY man is lucky to be alive after getting trapped at the bottom of a ten foot sinkhole in a remote field trying to rescue his dog.
The terrifying ordeal unfolded last Saturday morning when Les Turton, 63, was left scrambling for more than half an hour trying to free himself from a sinkhole in a field at Cudworth.
The hole is more than ten foot deep from the surface of the field with another hole at the bottom that Les says has ten feet of water running below it.
He jumped in to save his Jack Russell dog Oscar and managed to get him out by throwing him up to safety but ended up trapped because he wasn’t able to pull himself to safety as the hole was too deep to climb out of.
Les battled for more than 30 minutes trying to get out and had to use hit wits - and a hefty ten foot tree branch - to escape. He says he is lucky to be alive as he was off the beaten track and there was no-one about to hear his cries for help.
“It’s a walk I do about every day and for some reason I veered off the track I walk in-between Cudworth and Grimethorpe and I had seen this circular hole in the field. I had a look and came away from it because it didn’t look too safe.
“I carried on walking and all of a sudden I heard this ‘plop’ behind me. My little Jack Russell had fallen in.
“I tried reaching down to get the lead around his neck and it was too deep to reach him.
“Oscar managed to tread water for a few minutes and he went under and all I could see was his little nose.
“I don’t know what kicked in but I just jumped in, expecting to land on a bank inside the hole, but it just gave way and I dropped straight into the bottom where the water is.
“I got Oscar by the neck and threw him on a ledge in the earth.
“I was going under and managed to get my arms out to shoulder height to stop myself from falling further down. I was kicking my legs and there was nothing around me.”
He used a sturdy tree branch sticking out of the water to lever his legs out of the stream and straddle the gap above the water until he could compose himself. He then rolled on to his side and used the momentum to throw Oscar to safety.
“I spent about ten to 15 minutes shouting for help,” said Les. “I managed to get out of the water. This tree branch that was in the water, I pulled it out and thought I could stabilise myself with it.
“It was almost ten foot long.”
He threw the branch up to the surface to lay it across the width of the hole - but then he couldn’t reach it.
“I am only 5ft 4ins. I had no chance. After about another 20 or 30 minutes I knew no-one was going to come.”
He was becoming more exhausted as the minutes passed but knew he couldn’t give up.
“I managed to jump up and grab this branch with one hand and it was bending with the weight and I knew I only had one go. I pulled myself up to it and got the branch under my arms and threw my legs up and over on to field.”
Les is not ashamed to say he started to cry when he was eventually out.
“I am OK in myself now I have come to terms with it,” he said. “It was pretty frightening.
“My wife went back down with me after I cleaned myself up just to see if I was exaggerating and she was in tears when she saw it and said it could have been a completely different outcome.
“Oscar is OK but he hasn’t left my side since it happened.”
The hole has now been made secure and fenced off by the National Coal Board after local councillor Joe Hayward was alerted to what had happened.
Coun Hayward told the Chronicle it is a ‘crown hole’ - a type of sinkhole that appears in areas where there has been mining.
“It’s from the old pit days and could go back as far as 1840,” he said.
“It is a concern because it is miles away from anywhere.
“Les was lucky to get out.”
