Found a drain!

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
Might it be worth lobbying for a grant for one of those? :unsure:
got loads of them, found them with a machine thing, as used on time team, tried hard to get a payment through stewardship, even supported by heritage and county archeologist, no luck. Would have been really nice, along with the other stuff they found, it would have come to £480 hectare, and across 40'ish hectares, they tried to get me to a 'lower' scheme, that had massive strings attached, so that was that !
 

primmiemoo

Member
Location
Devon
got loads of them, found them with a machine thing, as used on time team, tried hard to get a payment through stewardship, even supported by heritage and county archeologist, no luck. Would have been really nice, along with the other stuff they found, it would have come to £480 hectare, and across 40'ish hectares, they tried to get me to a 'lower' scheme, that had massive strings attached, so that was that !

That sounds rotten luck, but might they come in handy to store quinoa at some point?

If we're heading back to Neolithic farming methods, we should be prepared. ?
 
The above sounds expensive but if the dye doesn’t work cheapest way I found was terrier boys with dog collars. Tie the collar to alkathene pipe and push down the drain. You’d need to dig a couple of holes for 350m but it’s a simple and effective method for finding blocked drains or exact pipe placing to join to or miss intentionally..
 

BAC

Member
The above sounds expensive but if the dye doesn’t work cheapest way I found was terrier boys with dog collars. Tie the collar to alkathene pipe and push down the drain. You’d need to dig a couple of holes for 350m but it’s a simple and effective method for finding blocked drains or exact pipe placing to join to or miss intentionally..

probably about £80 from a hire shop?

rather pay £80 and find it in an hour than all day and maybe still not have a clue.

i worked for a drainage contractor for 5 years and never carried a pot of dye
 
probably about £80 from a hire shop?

rather pay £80 and find it in an hour than all day and maybe still not have a clue.

i worked for a drainage contractor for 5 years and never carried a pot of dye

That doesn’t sound so bad, I guess the machine is expensive to start though.
A terrier collar will tell you in minutes too, route depth etc it just depends on how far you can push alkathene or wire but they are more than £80 to buy
 

Sharpy

Member
Livestock Farmer
Could you drop a float in at the top with the "terrier collar" attached as well as one end of a pack of baler twine, you could then control how fast it moves down the pipe (and pull it back up if it gets stuck)?
 
Could you drop a float in at the top with the "terrier collar" attached as well as one end of a pack of baler twine, you could then control how fast it moves down the pipe (and pull it back up if it gets stuck)?
That’s a good idea, certainly could if there was enough flow and big enough pipe as it’s not an actual collar more like half a Mars bar shape with collar holes either end you could tie to.
 

Exfarmer

Member
Location
Bury St Edmunds
had trouble with a soak-a-way in a cottage, a neighbour was getting very worked up, council chap put it down our drain, nothing showed up, she was still ranting, so council put some down her drain...…… she never apologised, but she did moan about the cost of a new system !
slightly different, as we have had heavy rainfall this autumn, which has been giving us hassle with surface run-off, a small hole appeared in 1 field, taking a large amount of water, must be an old drain, can't see where it runs to, on an old hedge line, hedge went late 60's ? been regulary ploughed, but this is the first inclination of a drain, and it doesn't run to the nearest ditch ! When crop is cut in may, we will have to explore, is interesting though, and, with the rain we have had, very welcome !
This may be just a sink hole, some soils over chalk get these where the water can escape to the aquifers below. Common in South Norfolk, sometimes a chamber will form beneath the soil surface where the soil has washed away . We used to see 1 or 2 every year, it was not uncommon for the combine to slump heavily to oneside, biggest one I saw a sludge tanker dropped in up to his windscreen.
 

Sharpy

Member
Livestock Farmer
That’s a good idea, certainly could if there was enough flow and big enough pipe as it’s not an actual collar more like half a Mars bar shape with collar holes either end you could tie to.
The other thought I had was ifyou used electric fence polywire you could attach a signal generator and then walk the route of the pipe tracing it with a cat scanner.
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
This may be just a sink hole, some soils over chalk get these where the water can escape to the aquifers below. Common in South Norfolk, sometimes a chamber will form beneath the soil surface where the soil has washed away . We used to see 1 or 2 every year, it was not uncommon for the combine to slump heavily to oneside, biggest one I saw a sludge tanker dropped in up to his windscreen.
if it is a sink hole, it must be enormous ! not far from roman houses, according to the archeologists, so I expect its from their drainage system. Over the years, we have uncovered many types of drain, as listed
stone gouts, some very large
withies laid in a trench
'herringbone' stone drains
horseshoe clay drains, sometimes on slate
jointed 2 inch pipes
ordinary 4 inch and 2 in clay drains
hexagon clay pipes
stone filled trenches
deepest drain, horseshoe, 8 ft deep, must have been dug in by hand, still working !
the amount of effort needed to put these drains in, was enormous, and very important to past ag, we have come across very old drains, with no apparent use.
1 very old, post roman drain/ditch, was found to have the remains (hobnails)of boots, at a junction, with the remains of another pair below them - time difference 150 years, burying boots at ditch/drain joints, was, again according to the archeologists, a normal practise, centuries ago, I will admit to finding the whole archeologist search, on our farm, which took 18 months, absolutely fascinating, only regret, we didn't get on time team, though they came x2 to look.
 

Sharpy

Member
Livestock Farmer
if it is a sink hole, it must be enormous ! not far from roman houses, according to the archeologists, so I expect its from their drainage system. Over the years, we have uncovered many types of drain, as listed
stone gouts, some very large
withies laid in a trench
'herringbone' stone drains
horseshoe clay drains, sometimes on slate
jointed 2 inch pipes
ordinary 4 inch and 2 in clay drains
hexagon clay pipes
stone filled trenches
deepest drain, horseshoe, 8 ft deep, must have been dug in by hand, still working !
the amount of effort needed to put these drains in, was enormous, and very important to past ag, we have come across very old drains, with no apparent use.
1 very old, post roman drain/ditch, was found to have the remains (hobnails)of boots, at a junction, with the remains of another pair below them - time difference 150 years, burying boots at ditch/drain joints, was, again according to the archeologists, a normal practise, centuries ago, I will admit to finding the whole archeologist search, on our farm, which took 18 months, absolutely fascinating, only regret, we didn't get on time team, though they came x2 to look.
Do they know why they buried the boots?
 

Goweresque

Member
Location
North Wilts
I've found several old drains:
Photo-0058.jpg

Photo-0063.jpg

Two wet spots appeared after the rain started in September, not just a damp area but water welling up out of the ground and making a river on the surface. Dug down and found old stone drains, running pretty fast, so am piping them to the nearest ditches, fortunately not far in each case, 40-50m. Luckily there's a good slope, so plenty of fall. Will be interesting to see if they run all year round, other similar stone drains in the same area never stop, even in the driest summers.
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
Do they know why they buried the boots?
pagan thing, although I thought we were Christians from roman times on. They were surprised not to find lamb bones with them ! Another field contained a medeaval village, deserted when the plague struck, apart from house remains, they found the foundations of a high status house, the sides of the foundation trench were perfect, as if done yesterday. They also found the skeleton of a cow, from the 'position' of the skeleton, they could tell it had wandered into a bog, and drowned, as they dug deeper there, they found human remains, the conclusion being, they had buried the plague victims in a ditch, causing the water to back up, and creating a swamp, into which, the cow got stuck, and being no-one left alive, no one saw her. I feel incredibly lucky, that all the archeology was done here, they came for3 weeks, which, because of so much archeology, extended to 18 months. They could even show me the medeaval plough pans !, And some of those were 4-5 feet deep, showing the amount soil can move by cultivation !!!
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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