Strange cap over what may be an old manhole

[russ p]

Has all the makings of a low budget American 1980s film

Once you have managed to open it you must report back as to whether

A ,you found a gateway to hell and most of your relatives are now possessed by the devil

Or

B,and Indian burial site and your house is so full of spirit and ghouls rattling doors and throwing knives you have had to move!

[sp1]

Has all the makings of a low budget American 1980s film

Once you have managed to open it you must report back as to whether

A ,you found a gateway to hell and most of your relatives are now possessed by the devil

Or

B,and Indian burial site and your house is so full of spirit and ghouls rattling doors and throwing knives you have had to move!

Or ......it could be the last resting place of Jimmy Hoffa.....

[LBRJ]

I fall into the septic tank side

it looks just like my the one at my friends house and is about the same distances from the house /field boundaries as yours is.

[PhilJ W]

I fall into the septic tank side

 

You should look where your walking.

[hayfield]

From the size my first guess would be an electricity supply joining chamber, where is it in relation to your in coming electricity feed?

 

It comes from the front, but the supply is quite new. We also found cast metal water pipes in the back going across the gardens parallel to the old sever pipes

[chris p bacon]

Having seen  'The League of Gentlemen' at the Cambridge Corn exchange this evening I'm pretty sure it's a portal to 'A wife mine'...........

[hayfield]

Having seen  'The League of Gentlemen' at the Cambridge Corn exchange this evening I'm pretty sure it's a portal to 'A wife mine'...........

 

 

We back on to a large Co oP more likely an escape tunnel, 

[runs as required]

If you stamp on it does it sound hollow? Which means it hasn't been back-filled. Our south Essex air raid shelters had steps down, not hatches - and different vents.

Unlikely to be a mineshaft in Essex.

Are you determined to explore by levering up the whole slab&frame?

I reckon you are merely going to discover an old clay pipe to a soakaway. My grandma out in the marshes towards Burnham on Crouch just had a soakaway from her old fashioned shallow kitchen sink, no hot water and an outside chemical toilet.

dh

[Jonboy]

Having seen  'The League of Gentlemen' at the Cambridge Corn exchange this evening I'm pretty sure it's a portal to 'A wife mine'...........

Did you enjoy it, my wife and I are off the Brighton to see it next month...

[Silver Sidelines]

Well - have you lifted the lid yet?

 

Ray

[chris p bacon]

Did you enjoy it, my wife and I are off the Brighton to see it next month...

 

 

It was excellent. No 1 son and I went and we laughed from start to finish. There are some sketches from the earlier series,  as well as some new stuff coming off the back of the 3 shows at xmas.

Really good . . . . . .Daaaaavvee..

 

 

Want some pegs. . 

[griffgriff]

Could be Tom, Dick or Harry

[hayfield]

Well - have you lifted the lid yet?

 

Ray

 

No as I said will wait to see a neighbour who may be able to shed some light on it. The houses are semis and were built in the twenties with an outside loo + coal shed. The village has altered both the sewers and water supply over the years and whilst the house was in the control of the local authority had been modernised/ improved two or three times and those who bought their homes have furthered developed them.

 

I am leaning to a septic tank idea, which may have been superseded by the initial sewer installation, which was further amended during one of the renovation periods, I have found the odd brick made by Southern Water.  

[Silver Sidelines]

We have a septic tank, it gets emptied about every  five years. They are not very exciting!

 

I am leaning to a septic tank idea, which may have been superseded by the initial sewer installation, which was further amended during one of the renovation periods, I have found the odd brick made by Southern Water.  

 

If it has not been used for ten or more years it will be pretty solid.

 

I remember when our daughter bought her first house, an ex council cottage, the solicitor went on and on about the checking the line of the drains.  The house dated from the 20s and was only connected to the main drainage some years after it was built.  The new drains had very thin steel sheet covers and sometime later we had to have the lid off one manhole to remove some tree roots that in their search for water had blocked up the drain

 

Ray

Edited August 16, 2018 by Silver Sidelines

[hayfield]

The properties are quite strange, as our side of the road are sort of Metroland style design where as the other side are quite utilitarian, both built at the same time by the same local building company, who made their own bricks, houses initially council, though most now in private ownership. The road is also private as its never been adopted by the local authority.

 

As for the services, they seem to have altered over the years and thankfully prior to the surviving local authority properties being transferred to a housing association both the road and pavements were maintained, quite weird 

[PatB]

I'm intrigued that 1920s houses had outside lavatories. I've always assumed that indoor plumbing was pretty universal on new builds post WW1.

[spikey]

We have a sceptic tank ...

Are you sure?

 

(Gets coat on way to stage left ...)

[Silver Sidelines]

Whoops

 

Are you sure?

(Gets coat on way to stage left ...)

 

Ray

[sir douglas]

I'm intrigued that 1920s houses had outside lavatories. I've always assumed that indoor plumbing was pretty universal on new builds post WW1.

we live in a 30's terrace that had an outside toilet as built, as the second shed door has a zig zag cut out across the top and opens inwards, the inside is still plastered and whitewashed though the hole in the floor is concreted over and there is still a Y junction under inspection cover in the yard, i think it was more normal to have indoor toilets after the second war, in our previous house which is a 30's semi detach, that did have indoor toilet as built but what is weird to me is that a few streets away the row of semis along that street originally had outside toilets even though they were built later, we used to live in one of them which still had the outside toilet but long since without water, because the shed was so small nobody bothered removing the toilet, sand was just left in place, and just for context this was only about 15 years ago

[Fat Controller]

I'm intrigued that 1920s houses had outside lavatories. I've always assumed that indoor plumbing was pretty universal on new builds post WW1.

Even when inside toilets became the norm, outside toilets were still being built into the 1950s. Sometimes, they shared a building with the 'coal-house', as in my parents' old house, built early 1950s. When you think of it, it saves either trailing dirt through the house, or having to remove shoes and overalls in a hurry.

There is a house at the back of ours which Southern Water have yet to find how it's connected to the main sewage system. Over the past decade, vehicles carrying self-propelled cameras have searched in vain to find the routeing.

[hayfield]

Are you sure?

 

(Gets coat on way to stage left ...)

 

 

We are in a semi rural location, just outside the village many properties are not on either the mains sewers of have gas supplies, in some places elevated water towers are still in evidence, part of the charm of why we moved here, away from large urban areas, but at the same time not too rural. Still the way the country is expanding population wise I guess it will diminish 

[spikey]

we live in a 30's terrace that had an outside toilet as built, as the second shed door has a zig zag cut out across the top ...

Yes, but has it still got the special pointed hook on the wall for the squares of newspaper? Our neighbour's outside bog still has!

[PhilJ W]

Thirty + years ago I lived in a cottage built in 1862. As built it was simply four rooms (2up 2down) with an outside loo in the back garden. In the 1920's a scullery was added to the back but the loo remained in the garden. It was only in the 50's that a further extension was added on the end of the scullery containing a bathroom with inside loo. The outside loo was removed but the site of it was still discernable by the verdant growth that included the odd tomato and raspberry plants.

[PatB]

Fair enough. I'm well aware of outdoor toilets being retained in older properties. My brother lived in a c1900 terrace in a not too deprived area of Leicester which had an outside dunny, certainly up until about 1990 and probably much later. I've just always been under the impression that the 1920s push for better quality housing stock, particularly by local authorities whose builds seem to have been largely pretty well regarded, included "modern" sanitary arrangements. I'm fairly familiar with the c1930s Council House semi designs used in Bristol, for example, and I don't recall any that showed evidence of older arrangements.

 

One lives and learns.

[Silver Sidelines]

My wife's parents semi built new in the north of England  around 1950 came with bathroom and toilet upstairs and a separate coal shed with attached toilet just outside the back door - really very practical.

 

Ray