Strange drainage pipe ends in my garden

[Landycat]

Hi,when I was digging out a strip footing in my garden I put my spade through a 6" clay pipe that was buried in the ground about 18" deep,clear water poured from the cracked pipe and slowly filled my trench.

In a bit of a panic I rang the water board who sent out a bloke to look at it and he called in reinforcements in a huge truck with drain cameras etc.
The pipe wasn't on their plans,but since it was a fairly big pipe they pulled up all the manhole covers for a couple of hundred yards in all directions but still couldn't figure what the pipe was for.

Eventually they chipped a bit off the top of the pipe and stuck their camera into it and found that the pipe "ended" about six feet away just on the fenceline,at this point they lost interest and began to put their equipment away (they didn't even bother looking in the other direction).

When I asked the guy in charge what the hell I was expected to do now,he recommended that I just wrap some lead sheet around it where it was broken,with wire and silicone,drain out as much water from the trench as possible,throw some concrete on it and forget I'd ever seen it.

Being rather green that's what I did.

My house is on a 50's council estate and the gardens slope from side to side,the soil is heavy clay,with actual yellow clay forming a pan a few inches under the surface,so I'm thinking that this is a land drain.My garden gets very soggy,but slopes towards my house where a French drain takes the water into the grid (into a combined drain system)

I followed the pipe uphill along to the fenceline of the house on the other side.

Can I make my neighbour (Housing Association) stop this discharge of water into my soil/garden?

 

[SimonH2]

Well if the pipe were to collapse and get clogged then the flow would stop, such things do happen all by themselves The fact that the pipe stops at the end of your garden suggests that the next neighbour along found it and wondered what it was for - before blocking it to stop the discharge into his garden !

 

[Landycat]

Well if the pipe were to collapse and get clogged then the flow would stop, such things do happen all by themselves The fact that the pipe stops at the end of your garden suggests that the next neighbour along found it and wondered what it was for - before blocking it to stop the discharge into his garden !

I suppose I could look for a 6" bung on ebay...

 

[Hugh Jaleak]

6" is rather small in the grand scale of things, if you'd hit a 24" foul sewer then i'd be worried! It's probably an old land drain, there are strict rules about building over or near a public sewer so the Water Authority are just making sure it's not theirs! (Think yourself lucky, if it was then they could have been talking thousands to move it!)

Landowners have a legal duty to accept water flows from higher ground, trying to get anything done will be nigh on impossible so I really wouldnt worry about it. Leave it in situ, it's worked 'as is' until now!