HEAVY rain brought chaos to the roads around Astley Bridge back in 1953.

The main sewer which served the whole area collapsed and the surrounding sub soil was washed away leaving a 15-foot deep hole on Blackburn Road.

The road surface - about three inches thick - had not been washed away but fortunately no cars had driven over it by the time engineers arrived on the scene.

Repairs proved to be a major engineering task with a new section of the sewer having to be lifted into place by a large crane as the busy road was reduced to a single lane.