John Nettleship* quotes

Mabel Hudson 2005: October 2005 (aged 94) her uncle worked for the farmer of the day, a Mr Knight, whose son had been lost down a Whirly Hole (whirlpool) in the Neddern and never seen again. Mabel and her sisters were warned to keep right away from the whirlpool area on account of this, though it seems the upper one and probably the lower one too had been filled in as part of the efforts made by T A Walker to cure the problem of the Severn Tunnel. The children used to walk across from Crick across Mr Edmunds’ land, keeping to the footpath, to go ice skating – maybe more in the area which has been fairly constantly flooded in winter. She is speaking of whirlpools from her childhood, 1910 onwards – much smaller than the original Whirlies, which were filled in by then. Colin Titcombe also reports small whirlpool/swallow holes from 1950 onwards.

Though John has an additional account from 2005 from an 92 year old local who recalls the child may have drowned after getting caught in barbwire designed to stop people and cattle entering the holes, and the body was eventually recovered and buried*.