We moved into our bungalow in a village in rural Lincolnshire in March this year; only about 4 days before the Covid lockdown. A lovely area, but very flat and quite a contrast from East Cornwall and West Devon.

Another difference from our previous house is that the area is without mains drainage. We then found that our septic tank had been modified to pump its untreated discharge into a nearby watercourse. Which, as well as being illegal, was not endearing us to our neighbours living near the ditch. So, the septic tank had to be replaced with a new modern domestic aerobic treatment plant and the neighbour-friendly treated discharge was to be sent to the ‘communal pipe’ which almost all of our immediate neighbours were  connected to. Or so we believed.

Despite the changeable weather and unexpected rainstorm, we had few hiccups and things went reasonably well; certainly as well as you might expect, burying something resembling a mini submarine in the back garden.

The surprising problem which delayed us and took up a whole morning was in locating the ‘communal pipe’ which we planned to connect with.

The pipe had reputedly been installed around 30 years ago by the local drainage board and was thought to be about 5 feet below ground and about 6 or so feet into the farmer’s field at the rear of our garden……………………To continue reading click here