Locating a very old cesspit

[Jack757]

I have found a written record that a disused cesspit from when bungalow was built 1906 is within the garden and a very rough measurement from boundary. I have no knowledge of this and now got me wondering. Firstly how could I actually locate it and would it effect building on site (I think it falls about 40ft from rear of property.

[Onoff]

I had to do exactly this for a pit built in the 50s. I was told it was at one time fenced off but that had long since disintegrated.

 

Luckily I knew the line it was on. Clay pipes with a series of manholes down the garden. The exactly "where"was because it was all seriously overgrown with trees and a layer of soil from rotted undergrowth over the years plus ground ivy. There were thorny sloe trees over and around it. Tbh they'd clearly grown up due to all the "nutrients", (I wouldn't eat the sloes though)!

 

The big danger was the fragility of the top cover. It's brick built, circular in shape with a domed brick top cover that has a cement skim. Beehive shape I think they call it. 

 

I followed the manholes, started clearing undergrowth and prodding the ground with a metal rod. I found the top cover edge and was able to lay ladders as a safety precaution to bear my weight. I then saw what looked like a dustbin lid

 

 

 

I took the lid off and gingerly leant in with the phone. Couldn't gauge the depth exactly with drain rods at they just kept going into "sludge" but about 3m dia from memory. 

 

 

Just because yours is disused doesn't mean it's not full of water (plus whatever) with a fragile top. If no longer used you could collapse the top in and fill with soil.

 

Or pump it out and make a nice man cave or kid's den a la Colin Furze 😂 If you do expose it then restrict access until it's safe. Mines covered in scaffold boards and pallets. 

[MikeSharp01]

It is amazing what @Onoff can find buried in his garden, Still Kent is a bit like that we have an old one with a structural lid, thanks goodness, under our drive I keep throwing stuff in through the manhole and it just keeps subsiding away of not sure how big it is. I do know it is bypassed now to the main sewer and we have lived here for 30 years so unlikely to be anything dangerous alive down there!

[Onoff]

29 minutes ago, MikeSharp01 said:

unlikely to be anything dangerous alive down there!

 

Maybe a badger with a sore head...

 

What I want to find is a WW2 stay behind with a stock of greased up Stens...home defence! 😉

[Russell griffiths]

Why do you want to find it ?

if it’s disused then it’s of no use, if your worried about the new house foundations, then you will soon find it when you dig them, have a spare 2 grand handy for additional concrete and a days labour and just fill it in. 

[Canski]

In my experience ……It will be on the last stretch of foundation that you pull prior to concreting. Your heart and wallet will fall into it when you find it. Save a couple off the old bottles that you excavate it down to a very deep depth. They will remind you of your discovery for years to come. Back up your first load of concrete and watch it disappear. 

[Jack757]

16 hours ago, Onoff said:

 

Maybe a badger with a sore head...

 

What I want to find is a WW2 stay behind with a stock of greased up Stens...home defence! 😉

I have an air raid Anderson shelter to go with my missing cesspit lol

[Jack757]

15 hours ago, Russell griffiths said:

Why do you want to find it ?

if it’s disused then it’s of no use, if your worried about the new house foundations, then you will soon find it when you dig them, have a spare 2 grand handy for additional concrete and a days labour and just fill it in. 

Just interested, having lived there most of my life never know it existed until now.