Any drainage experts on here

[Exfarmer]

post war huge numbers were made at Stewartby until thew 1980's or a bit later. Lade thousands of the things, by hand, with the aid of a digger.
Gene rally being the smallest I was volunteered

 

[Jameshenry]

Any idea on the age of these ribbed tiles , not come across them here before

1950's -1960's

 

[Derrick Hughes]

post war huge numbers were made at Stewartby until thew 1980's or a bit later. Lade thousands of the things, by hand, with the aid of a digger.
Gene rally being the smallest I was volunteered

I put a lot in behind my brother in the digger , but always the smooth ones not ribs,
Tile drains seem to run better than plastic over time , those drains still running quite strong

 

[organicguy]

Any idea on the age of these ribbed tiles , not come across them here before

Just repaired a drain where those had been used to patch an old system. They were all broken, just collapsed, the older smooth clay ones were fine.

 

[Exfarmer]

I put a lot in behind my brother in the digger , but always the smooth ones not ribs,
Tile drains seem to run better than plastic over time , those drains still running quite strong

Where we farmed in Buckinghamshire, the farm had been once a Victorian model farm. Sadly in the intervening years the whole drainage system been allowed to decay with no ditching having been done for at least half a century. .
However when these were cleaned most of the drains started running freely . We did have perhaps 50 acres they were in such bad state and with no knowledge of the old scheme gradually work our way across the farm. It was nearly all done by hand , with a digger as very frequently we would start near a wet spot and very quickly pick up the old drains which were still running mostly clay tile but also earlier stone drains using the local limestone with two stones on edge supporting a small slab across the top, nothing under

 

[TheTallGuy]

Any idea on the age of these ribbed tiles , not come across them here before

Got a pile of them sat behind the barn, I can't quite bring myself to break them up for hardcore!

 

[theboytheboy]

Got a pile of them sat behind the barn, I can't quite bring myself to break them up for hardcore!

I have a load in a crate.....keep trying to think of a way to use them rather than crush them all.

 

[Kevtherev]

Any idea on the age of these ribbed tiles , not come across them here before

London Brick Derek
Hundreds of them about father used to buy a lot at one time but Henry Oakland from Yorkshire being the favourite clay pipe supplier.

 

[Kevtherev]

 

[Kevtherev]

 

[Forkdriver]

I have a load in a crate.....keep trying to think of a way to use them rather than crush them all.

Stacked in a frame they make a great wine rack.
This thread brings back memories of my days at Cambridgeshire smallholdings. We put in miles every year. Levelling to get a fall in a flat field sometimes you needed to go Very deep.

 

[Kevtherev]

 

[Kevtherev]

 

[br jones]

Lot of ditches in this area were dug by napoleonic prisoners of war and more recently by Italian POW so I’m told.

we had italian pow s here built wall and drainage everywhere

 

[onthehoof]

Back to original post after a bit of head scratching I think I’ve sussed it.

It’s a new plan over the top of an old plan, as suggested the dotted plus solid lines are the old drains and the single solid lines are the new drains, regarding the numbers up the sides the numbers on the outside of the field refer to the distance between the old drains and the numbers on the inside of the field refer to the distance between the new drains, this makes sense as it means the lines are drawn to scale and the numbers are written halfway between the two either old drains or new drains.
On the left hand side I had already found the first new drain at 60ft from the bottom line (ditch). Today I tried to find the next drain up so measured 155ft up from the first new drain, dug for two hours found nothing, came home and looked at map again, so realising how its been done the second drain (old drain) wont be 155ft from the first drain but 155ft from the bottom ditch, the next (old) drain should be 101ft from this one, the next one (new) should be 249 ft from the first drain although it has 172’ written next to it refers to the distance between the two old drains and again the next number up 286’ doesn’t refer to the old drain it sits on but the distance between the two new drains.
The thing to remember is the number is written halfway between the two drains to which it is referring to.