Holding Tank for Rain Water

[HarryG]

Have bought part of a victorian pile and have now discovered there is a large tank in the ground (3 feet from the building) out the back. It is approximately 8 ft across and 12 -14 ft deep perfectly round with a flat bottom and domed top- it obviously collected rainwater for use in the house / garden in years gone by; it has an overflow and a steel pipe which was presumably connected to a pump. at aquess it has been there for 100 / 150 years.

Question for all you knowledgable ones - do I have to fill it before I biuld a raised deck / terrace above it? or, could I plug the top and then cast a reinforced plinth right across the site as the foundationd for the terrace?

All thoughts greatfully received

Thanks
HG

 

[middi]

I would be tempted to keep it as a rain water reservoir with an access to pump servicing, you never know.

If I needed to utelise the ground above I would probably use reinforced lintels clear of the tank and cast a floor on these, or use drainage and a membrane with top soil if you want to put plants on

 

[flowera]

I suspect the tank would have collected rainwater for clothes washing. The victorians always preferred soft rainwater to the typically hard stuff that came from the well.

My house was the farmhouse to an old estate and I have the estate laundry out the back in a single story building - it has an underfloor tank that seems to collect all the rainwater. I view mine as an asset as I plan to use the water on the garden (as I have a water meter on the mains feed).

Alan.

 

[HarryG]

Thanks for that Alan - makes sense as it is located outside the old scullery and the water hereabouts is hard. Good idea about saving money on the meter.
HG

 

[Penners]

What a wonderful asset, Harry! Given that, ten years from now, England will be the world's newest desert, and we'll all be allocated about half a litre of dehydrated water a day, I'd hang on to it like gold dust.

I would definitely follow the plan you outlined for putting a cap across it - steel reinforced concrete perhaps (given the considerable diameter it might be best if you could dome it a bit). You could put a submersible pump into it, or perhaps try and find an old traditional manual lift pump in a salvo yard.

I'm very jealous!

 

[Nemesis]

Me too - what wonderful find, so much part of the house history!

(It does seem to me, sitting in a very wet Northumberland, that rumours that water is in short supply and getting ever shorter are totally unfounded...)

 

[Penners]

"Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink."

We've got to learn to catch and conserve more.

 

[Nemesis]

Seems a useful thread to add this link:

http://www.winsfordwalledgarden.co.uk/victorian_irrigation.html

http://www.winsfordwalledgarden.co.uk/water_tank_repairs.html

 

[GeoffP]

I have two of these structures on my grounds which were capped over 40 years ago.

I remember seeing my father with a wheelbarrow about to fill one of them in using old rubble but I stopped him in time, remarking that we may need these in the future when water gets scarce. (Wish I could have the same foresight on the lottery)

Luckily he took notice and capped one of them using (I assume) reinforced concrete with a drain in the top, the other one, which didn’t have to handle any serious traffic, had a metal cover fitted over the manhole and is probably still removable. Up to a few years ago, I regularly ran 20 ton lorries over the concreted one and it’s still intact.

As I remember, these are brick built rectangular shaped with a domed ceiling with a small manhole. They are about 6ft deep and at some time in the past, one was connected to a long gone hand pump in the outdoor “washhouse” which had a built in coal fired copper.

They appear to have been fed from guttering and down pipes from the roofs of the cowsheds and barns.

I have never attempted to use them and they are not situated conveniently to make a water feature but if the supposed “water shortage” gets worse, they may come in handy in the future.

Geoff

 

[Nemesis]

We have a brick built septic tank. Same idea really!

 

[HarryG]

Thank you all for your responses and especially Geoff for that info

 

[harkerhill]

Seems like I have found the same sort of water storage tank - but in my dining room!! (I think it used to be outside but the house was extended 100 years ago).

I'm just mulling over my options now for what to do with it

 

[Nemesis]

Water lilies?

 

[harkerhill]

Water lilies?

I prefer the footspa idea.

 

[Nemesis]

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