Water-filled sump/well/structure in the cellar - what is it?

[andrewjb]

I've started thinking about sorting out the damp issues in our cellar. To that end I removed a board that was clearly 'covering something up'. It uncovered this:

http://www.anmel.clara.net/b.jpg

Gulp.

The three spaces are a couple of foot wide, and contain a foot or so of (clean-looking) water each. One has a pipe feeding into (or out of?) it:

http://www.anmel.clara.net/a.jpg


Any ideas? Is it a sump that's protecting the cellar? Should it be wet, or is some exit point (can't see one) blocked? Or is the house about to float away.

Stone build detached house ~1900.

 

[MdB]

Worth seeing I think even if it does expand the window a bit...

(is that a crate of Gin to the left???)

I'm going to be digging up my floor shortly. I wonder what I will find...

 

[andrewjb]

(is that a crate of Gin to the left???)

'Fraid not. Both the boxes have just got bits 'n' bobs in (going damp and mouldy!)... I didn't even empty the contents out in the first place

Any ideas what it is, then?

 

[Nemesis]

If the water is clean and it hasn't overflowed I'd suggest that there is some exit point!

It could be cysts being fed from a rainwater collection system, or a spring.

Depending on how rural the area is, there may not have been mains water for many decades to come. This is possibly the household supply, for washing, cooking, bathing etc etc.

 

[Aidan]

The three spaces are a couple of foot wide, and contain a foot or so of (clean-looking) water each. One has a pipe feeding into (or out of?) it:.

Urinals? Ex-pub?

I'd put a drain bung in the pipes. And push a drain-snake or curtain wire down the pipe to see if it goes up or away. You can get drain dye, which you can use to determine if it connects into a near-by manhole.

Can you take a picture up the spaces? Any pipes coming down?

Or seats?

 

[Nemesis]

There appears to be some sort of cover/lintel at the top of each opening - stone?

 

[andrewjb]

A couple of answers:

Not an ex-pub, as far as we know. Originally built to be the "mill owner's house" for the (now disappeared) textile mill in the dip opposite.

Haven't looked yet to see whether the pipe is incoming or outgoing - I can't really see down it at the moment.

There's nothing to see 'upwards' - it's a solid (stone?) lintel/block rendered in something (plaster?) No pipes dropping from above or any other openings.

This is also in the middle of, I believe, a solid stone wall - so there can't be seats immediately above the holes!

And it's only the (pictured) hole of the 3 that has a pipe leading to or from it.



Any more ideas, anyone ?!

 

[inwood]

Have you tried pouring water into the hole with the pipe to see if it drains away?

 

[andrewjb]

Have you tried pouring water into the hole with the pipe to see if it drains away?

Not yet. I'm a little reluctant to add/remove water or fiddle about with anything without knowing where it might go...

There's a loose stone at the bottom of the pictured hole (top-right in the picture) I wonder whether it's covering some kind of plug/drain hole, but don't really fancy picking it up just yet.. There's a fair bit of water in there altogether. It'll make quite a mess if it suddenly appears somewhere..!