Mystery surrounds the sudden appearance of a 60ft (18m) deep hole on farmland in County Durham. A youngster almost fell into the 1m-wide hole at Highfield Farm, near Bishop Middleham, on Bonfire Night. Some local people believe nearby quarry workings may be the cause - a claim operator Lafarge Aggregates denies. Experts from Durham County Council have been drafted in, but admit that at the moment they are unable to come up with a reason why it has suddenly appeared.
Farmer Billy King said: "We put a rope down with a weight on the bottom and it measured about 60ft deep.
"It's not that wide, but it is quite scary when you look down. It looks more like something you would get if there was an earthquake and the ground opens up."
Horses that usually graze in the field have been moved to safer ground.
Durham County Council surveyors have examined the site, but have so far drawn a blank.
A spokeswoman for Lafarge, which operates a quarry about a mile away from the farm, said: "The area is riddled with old mine workings, there are also two disused quarries as well as an old landfill site within a few hundred yards of the farm.
"All our blasts are monitored by both by the company and by Leeds University and we see absolutely nothing that indicates there is anything wrong with any of those blasts.
"We are confident this has absolutely nothing to do with us."
A spokesman for Durham County Council said: "We are aware of the hole, but do not have any information on the cause of it."