Occupant from the '60s coming for tea

[JoceAndChris]

Oh, sorry worms! No, I thought it was just bunged in the bushes and ivy, not actually fixed to anything - will go and check. We've got dumped stuff all over.It's sort of sitting on our soakaway.

 

[Schoolmarm]

It might have been the older version that was replaced? Or an unfinished project?

 

[JoceAndChris]

Good points. It's bolted to a large and very thick concrete base. This in turn is buried in mud, and, without a lot of digging, I can't see if it's attached to the top of the soak away / cess pit or if it's just been dumped there. There's a tap on it.

Clearly the system of pumped, running water through goes back at least 100 years. There's a tank in the attic that's a real Jules Verne beauty - now redundant. They either built it in situ or sited it before the first roof went on/ ceilings were made. I'd dearly love to know if the original Regency occupants had pumped, running water in the kitchen - the evidence, at this stage of my exploration, suggests they did.

 

[Feltwell]

Job no. 300000276 on the Feltwell list is to get our pump working again - we have an old cast iron handpump on the return at the end of our garden that goes across to a side lane. I've had a little dig around the old pump but have so far not discovered how the well that is presumably beneath / beside it is capped off.

My slight worry is that the well cap is wooden and rotten. However I've a huge pile of bricks on top of where it might be that have yet to disappear, so maybe I'm worrying too much. I'd like to know where the well is, if nothing else because job no 300000277 is to turn said pile of bricks into a garden shed on that spot, and I'd rather not build it inadvertently over an old well :shock:

 

[Zebra]

We don't have his practical skills ( or yours, come to that)

Thank you so much. But I have gumption, nothing more.....

 

[FamilyWiggs]

We don't have his practical skills ( or yours, come to that)

Thank you so much. But I have gumption, nothing more.....

A much underrated and sadly missing quality from so many. With gumption, pluck and a good guide book/website there's not much we can't do. 8)

 

[worms]

Good points. It's bolted to a large and very thick concrete base...

My mental image of a spring-line well in a rural property would be a concrete slab, with either a pump bolted to the top or a rusting metal man-hole cover. So I would still want to investigate further.

But you say this is on top of your soak-away? Do you mean the soak-away from the septic tank? What appears as a soak-away isn't simply the overflow from a spring-line well?

 

[LadyArowana]

We don't have his practical skills ( or yours, come to that)

Thank you so much. But I have gumption, nothing more.....

A much underrated and sadly missing quality from so many. With gumption, pluck and a good guide book/website there's not much we can't do. 8)

I would add duck tape and a Swiss Army pen knife to that list.

 

[JoceAndChris]

:lol: I'd also add the stoic calm and saintly patience to live in a building site, qualities Chris and I lack.

Worms - thank you so much for pitting those sharp wits of yours to this. I'm going to have to get the shovel out aren't I! A really good dig out of all the soil around the concrete will reveal what's going on. Rusty pumpy thingy is on our soakaway where all our waste goes - not near any spring, as far as I'm aware. Could it be a pump for pumping out a septic tank?

I don't know if we have a soakaway, a septic tank, or what. All I know is it's very old ( 30s probably) and it works. Waste goes in, waste disappears. Huge apples grow from waste.

 

[LadyArowana]

I don't know if we have a soakaway, a septic tank, or what. All I know is it's very old ( 30s probably) and it works. Waste goes in, waste disappears. Huge apples grow from waste.

Ok then, making mental note, no crumble for dessert when I visit Joce and Chris :lol:

 

[worms]

Rusty pumpy thingy is on our soakaway where all our waste goes - not near any spring, as far as I'm aware. Could it be a pump for pumping out a septic tank?

I briefly wondered if it was for pumping out a cess pit, but without lots of water and some sort of agitator/shredder to liquidise everything I really can't see it being pumped out by hand. So I'm afraid this one has me beat!

I don't know if we have a soakaway, a septic tank, or what. All I know is it's very old ( 30s probably) and it works. Waste goes in, waste disappears.

So no need for a pump to clear it, then!

Huge apples grow from waste.

Sounds good!