Down the Drain!

Over the last two years flooding and ponding around the village has been getting progressively worse. Investigations with our drainage contractor over the 'summer' of 2012 revealed that the main drain taking surface water from nearly all parts of the village was in need of replacement.

The drain originally put in sometime in the 1820s was on its last legs. The photo below gives an idea of the issues we are dealing with.



section of drain nearly blocked completely with silt



 The drain is comprised of clay 1' long pipes butted up against each other. Soil particles can get between these and as you see in the photo, limit the water's progress through the pipe.

The answer was to install a new drain along the 600mtr length and bypass the old drain, letting it die slowly. It will continue to take water but not in the capacity we need to move it off the property to the river.

The new drain was started on January the 4th and progress to date has been good. We have picked up lots of land drains, these could be anywhere between 150 -200 years old, some still working. These have all been connected into the new drain.

                                                         This image shows a 'horseshoe' drain which were roughly spaced around every 12mtr through the field. Where they were working they were connected up to the main drain to carry on the good work.

The main drain itself is made of rigid plastic, twin wall construction and very strong. This will be taking water for the next 200 years. So everything needed to be accurate from the fall from one end to another between 1" to 1 1/2" to joining in old pipes.

Once connected up, end to end, we should see the effect almost straight away. We currently have standing water in fields that should melt away into the drain.

We are about half way through the project, so we'll keep you informed of progress and just hope it stays dry so we can complete it without wading through sludge!