Boundary ditches

[Steevo]

How do people usually deal with cleaning boundary ditches out?

I’ve got quite a few that have not been cleaned out in 20-30yrs, my ditch but their side of the hedge (and sometimes half buried in the hedge!)

Lots of spoil to come out, and probably quite a bit of timber or roots which I can’t imagine the neighbours would be too happy about if left in their field.

A regularly cleaned ditch wouldn’t be such an issue but these have been left so are now a bit of a headache

Someone suggested to me putting in a land drain with stone my side of the hedge so the ditch is superfluous but it’s not a cheap option.

I’ve already cleaned a lot of neighbours (multiple) on my land just to get them flowing as it’s a lot simpler done from my side when I’m doing my internal ones too, but it’s ‘my” ditches on their side I’ll need to tackle next so trying to plan it ahead.

Open to ideas.

 

[ARW]

Contact your neighbour and get them cleaned out ASAP, if your neighbour is a proper farmer then he will be pleased to see a digger

 

[Tubbylew]

How do people usually deal with cleaning boundary ditches out?

I’ve got quite a few that have not been cleaned out in 20-30yrs, my ditch but their side of the hedge (and sometimes half buried in the hedge!)

Lots of spoil to come out, and probably quite a bit of timber or roots which I can’t imagine the neighbours would be too happy about if left in their field.

A regularly cleaned ditch wouldn’t be such an issue but these have been left so are now a bit of a headache

Someone suggested to me putting in a land drain with stone my side of the hedge so the ditch is superfluous but it’s not a cheap option.

I’ve already cleaned a lot of neighbours (multiple) on my land just to get them flowing as it’s a lot simpler done from my side when I’m doing my internal ones too, but it’s ‘my” ditches on their side I’ll need to tackle next so trying to plan it ahead.

Open to ideas.

I'd have a word and get it done, I belive you have a right of access to carry out such things, but not sure if thats with a spade etc. rather than a digger, trailer etc. If the neighbour has any sense they'll let you, it's mutually benificial to get it sorted.

 

[Steevo]

.....and the spoil/roots/timber/branches/bits of hedge?

 

[steveR]

Got one like the OP describes, but unfortunately NOT a farmer, but a turf grower. I suggested that I could put the spoil on the top of the bank (as legally required) or into the field and work it in.... No margins here!

He was not happy at the idea of the spoil getting in his turf the next time, so I'm going to have to clear it and tip the soil elsewhere on the field!

 

[Steevo]

Got one like the OP describes, but unfortunately NOT a farmer, but a turf grower. I suggested that I could put the spoil on the top of the bank (as legally required) or into the field and work it in.... No margins here!

He was not happy at the idea of the spoil getting in his turf the next time, so I'm going to have to clear it and tip the soil elsewhere on the field!

Ouch, that makes life a little tricky!

I did wonder if digger could reach back over the hedge and dump it my side but it’s still a problem to sort. It makes for a lot of stuff to shift in a dump trailer or such and that soon adds up in tractor and digger time.

 

[Dry Rot]

I've got a nasty feeling some jobs worth government department insists that all spoil is carted away. Seem to remember reading about it -- to promptly be ignored by all those with commonsense. The last contractor deepened and widened my ditches, despositing clumps of soil and vegetation in the field. Breaking that up has been a major headache. I've dragged harrows over the lumps, knocking off a lot of the soil, then manually put it into the tractor buckt and dumped it in a hole, but it is hard work and lumps still remain. Probably have to plough the field to get rid of it.

I have one shared ditch on a boundary. We take turns cleaning it out every few years. Forunately, the spoil can be dumped on the banks which are rough anyway.

Drainage law is complicated and surveyors are expensive. Best if neighbours can agree. But some people still think water will run up hill.

 

[ARW]

while hedgecutting I’m always going to the farm next door to mow out there dyke, I also usually see when they need clearing out and always mention it.
It also annoys me when people say “oh it’s only an old dyke it will be right”
No numb nuts, they didn’t dig that dyke by hand for noting, it’s there for a reason!

 

[mixed breed]

You can only ask, if carting spoil away is nesscersary, so be it.

When my dad took on the tenancy of this farm in the 70s, it was in a neclected state, overgrown hedges and untouched ditches. After some spade work he bought a mcconnnel dither to help the job. He asked the nieghbour if he could attack a ditch on his side as it was holding everything up, the nieghbour was more than happy, so father went round and cleaned it out, placing the spoil on the bank as most do. When he left all was well and a good job done for both parties, that was until the chap's son came home from school, discruntled at the "mess" he got the scraper tractor and pushed it all back in. Dad unable to reason with the child eventually had bypass the ditch by laying a pipe on our side.

Best of luck, but beware, some folk are just odd.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Can't you cut a ditch your side

 

[caveman]

If your neighbour keeps livestock, would you consider insisting that he puts in a fence to keep that stock out of your ditch?

 

[caveman]

Can't you cut a ditch your side

He's already got a ditch on his land.

 

[ARW]

Does nobody walk dykes anymore? I walk my dykes regularly to check drain ends and fork out brash to stop blockages

 

[Derrick Hughes]

He's already got a ditch on his land.

Sorry don't understand how that works must be different in England - I thought the middle of the hedge was the boundary - you learn something every day

 

[caveman]

Sorry don't understand how that works must be different in England - I thought the middle of the hedge was the boundary - you learn something every day

If you were to dig a drainage ditch on your boundary, would you pile the spoil on your land or your neighbours land?

 

[Derrick Hughes]

If you were to dig a drainage ditch on your boundary, would you pile the spoil on your land or your neighbours land?

We have soil banks here the middle being the boundary - so my side my ditch my spoil -to answer your question I don't know what I wouid do if for some strange reason you owned a ditch and you had to enter next doors property to clean it-

 

[Kevtherev]

.....and the spoil/roots/timber/branches/bits of hedge?

Dig a hole and bury it

 

[Derrick Hughes]

If you were to dig a drainage ditch on your boundary, would you pile the spoil on your land or your neighbours land?

Mine of course but if the bank was poor I may rebuild it with the spoil

 

[caveman]

We have soil banks here the middle being the boundary - so my side my ditch my spoil -to answer your question I don't know what I wouid do if for some strange reason you owned a ditch and you had to enter next doors property to clean it-

Consider. In days of yore. The boundary was probably marked by a few piles of stones away across the land.
The guy on the lower land, probably realised that his land would be drier and consequently warmer and earlier, were he to stop the water running off of his higher neighbours land, onto his.
So he dug a drainage ditch on HIS land, as tight to the boundary as was possible.
Only possessing a spade or shovel and not some huge 360 machine, he piled the subsoil and other spoil onto his land beside that ditch, creating a bank.
What better place to put some sort of fence (hedge) to keep his stock out of his ditch?

 

[ARW]

Consider. In days of yore. The boundary was probably marked by a few piles of stones away across the land.
The guy on the lower land, probably realised that his land would be drier and consequently warmer and earlier, were he to stop the water running off of his higher neighbours land, onto his.
So he dug a drainage ditch on HIS land, as tight to the boundary as was possible.
Only possessing a spade or shovel and not some huge 360 machine, he piled the subsoil and other spoil onto his land beside that ditch, creating a bank.
What better place to put some sort of fence (hedge) to keep his stock out of his ditch?

Around here I think ditches were dug as main drains, a ditch would be dug and left open for all the drains to run into, hedges planted to keep stock out and hedges round here are planted where the land changes so crops and livestock would be rotated. There are many fields here with the ditch belonging to the nieghbour, which if you look will take water mainly from the owners fields, but some of the neighbours drains will also run into it