A hole in a Colne Valley road that became a running joke is now wholesome again.

The hole, which had become known simply as th’oyl it had been there that long, first appeared on Carr Lane in Slaithwaite – the main road through the village – almost 18 weeks ago.

Villagers were left irritated that nothing was being done and when Huddersfield Hub got involved discovered that Yorkshire Water and Kirklees Council were at loggerheads over which of them should fix it.

And, even though it’s now suddenly been repaired, no-one is the wiser as to who was responsible for the hole.

A spokesperson for Kirklees Council said: “Following investigation works carried out by Yorkshire Water and the council, the hole in the road on Carr Lane, Slaithwaite, has now been repaired. We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.”

Over the more than four months the hole was there, signs protecting it had blown down, the barriers fell over and all ended up in a heap on top of th’oyl which was around 18 inches to 2ft deep.

The saga descended into ridicule when Slaithwaite skip driver Nick Lawton created a never-ending group of fictional characters on social media remarking on the hole and questioning why nothing was being done.

 

Nick Lawton dancing a jig of joy on the filled in hole

 

Nick was doing weekly updates on the Slaithwaite Facebook page and when Yorkshire Water and Kirklees Council seemed to suggest the other was responsible the Hub said it would follow Nick’s lead by doing a weekly update.

The hole was then rapidly repaired so this is the first and last weekly update from the Hub.

Nick, who drives for Slaithwaite-based Bower Skip Hire, was spotted doing a jig – perhaps a dance of disbelief – on the newly tarmacked hole.

He said: “Ey up, I’m just doing a bit of a dance on t’new tarmac to mek sure its gonna owd all the traffic coming over it – 18 weeks to sort and 2 hours to fix.”

He added: “In all seriousness, shame on all of our services. We pay them to look after us and everything around us. I only started this as a bit of a joke but as it got a decent following I carried it on yet it looks like it’s finally come to an end.”

We’ll leave the final word to a couple of the zany characters Nick has made up along the way.

Winter wonderland girls Chrissy Tree and Holly Bush, both 30, said: “We’re glad it’s gone but a bit sad too as we were three-quarters of the way thru a mega design for a Christmas feature for t’oyl.”

Perhaps a wreath would now be more fitting …

Written by ANDY HIRST who runs his own Yorkshire freelance journalism agency AH! PR (https://ah-pr.com/) specialising in press releases, blogging, website content, copywriting and ghost-writing autobiographies.