Any idea what is this concrete in my garden?

[sweavo]

Hi All,

I've only just started to get into gardening, and I thought I'd start by improving the soil (which you could almost make bricks out of, it's such thick clay). The first bit I started digging, I turned up a large piece of what seems to have been poured concrete. Any idea what it's doing there? Left over from construction of the house? An old patio support? Stopping me smashing a drain or electric cable? It's about a foot across and runs from a few inches from the fence (pictured) under the lawn and seems to stop about a foot or two before the other fence.

 

[Mr Fix It]

whats on the otherside of the fence?

 

[JohnD]

how thick?

Is there another one about five feet away, and parallel?

 

[sweavo]

The concrete stops a couple inches short of the fence, and I don't see anything of interest on the far side -- the neighbor just ripped out her lawn and flowerbeds so it's all just level soil and some loose flagstones for walking over it.

Thickness seems to be a couple of inches. Most of what you see in the pic seems to be clay with some large crumbly bits in it, like chalk or something. The pic is taken from the deck: I haven't looked under the deck but I think it was paved before.

I'm intrigued by the 5 foot question. What's the theory?

/edit: I should add that there are concrete inspection covers in both neighbors' gardens, but that this concrete is not on the line straight between them.

 

[JohnD]

if you have five feet you can drive a car along it with one wheel on each foot, e.g. to a former garage

Could have been an old track

But if thin, maybe a footpath to a washing line? I have seen such a narrow path in old country gardens

 

[noseall]

can you dig under it?

 

[Thermo]

looks like an old strip foundation, possibly for a greenhouse base. see if there is anything under it and then try and pry it up