A piece of railway history may be the cause of a growing problem for motorists.

Drivers using a quiet back road have noticed the jolt when they go over a dip has been getting steadily worse.

The road surface at the junction of Northease Drive and Poplar Close, Hangleton, Hove, has been subsiding for some time.

Brian Blackman's boyhood memories of the area could hold the key to the cause.

Mr Blackman, 65, grew up in the area. He now lives in Portslade, but his mother still lives there and he uses the road regularly.

He believes the subsidence is caused by a hidden railway tunnel and cutting.

They were part of the Dyke Railway which carried thousands of tourists from the western edge of Brighton to the Devil's Dyke.

The railway was built in 1883, and ran for 50 years until its popularity waned and it finally closed in 1938.

Mr Blackman said: "The trains used to run into a deep cutting and brick-built tunnel which went through what was then countryside.

"There was only a farm track there in those days and it went across the top of the tunnel.

"It stood derelict for a long time after the railway shut down and my friends and I used to play down there."

Mr Blackman said the tunnel and cutting were filled in soon after the end of the Second World War.

He said: "I was only about ten at the time and remember the council dustcarts arriving to fill the tunnel with ash from burnt rubbish.

"We used to have great fun climbing into the tunnel where they had not been able to fill it right to the top."

Hangleton councillor Peter Willows said he had asked Brighton and Hove City Council to investigate the subsidence.

He said: "It has been getting worse for the last eighteen months or so and you get quite a jolt when you drive over it now.

"Mr Blackman told me about the railway running under that part of Hangleton, which I found very interesting.

"I have asked the council to investigate it and to do something about filling in the dip in the road as soon as possible."