Mapping drains

[AJ123]

Got some fairly ancient (1970’s) drains here, most still work, I’ve got all the paper maps, would love to get them all on one plan and verify the outfalls by GPS as and when I go round doing the ditches. Has any one done anything like this and what software/system did you use?
Even better if I could then have it on a mobile device to go and find the outfalls fairly accurately..

 

[teslacoils]

Tbh if the Google satellite went over in a dry year you can probably see them on Google maps, and put your location on in real time. That's how I've been doing it even with the maps in hand. Then I bang a post where the outfall is for later .

 

[upnortheast]

Got some fairly ancient (1970’s) drains here, most still work,

Fairly ancient !!
All of the drains on this farm were dug in circa 1850 & are still working very well, must have been the fashion at the time to put them in deep & the biggest fault, straight up the hill. Most are about 4ft down & 10 yards apart.
I marvel at the skill & sweat that went into the installation.
We have done some plastic schemes in the last 30 years, diagonly across the hill to supplement the old tiles

 

[fermerboy]

I scanned the paper map to a jpeg on the pc. Then you can overlay it on Google earth, its a bit of a fiddle but the jpeg can be stretched rotated to match the landmarks on the Google image, you can adjust the how opaque the overlay is so you can "see through it" Often you can see the map is wrong by the drains picked up on Google.
Then its easy to mark outlets on Google earth using markers or pins, upload to phone or if possible a more accurate mobile GPS device to see if the map is accurate.
They never are!!!

Plenty of decent apps for phones, mobiles claim about 5-10m accuracy but in reality its a good bit better than that.

 

[woodylane]

Have a look at Omnia access from Hutchinsons, it’s a free service that allows you to map features and also scan old maps in and overlay them onto your fields. It also features a very useful and accurate weather forecast.

 

[benny6910]

I’ve just been putting a few with the what 3 words app on my phone, not really sure if you can transfer it onto anything else tho

 

[Macsky]

Fairly ancient !!
All of the drains on this farm were dug in circa 1850 & are still working very well, must have been the fashion at the time to put them in deep & the biggest fault, straight up the hill. Most are about 4ft down & 10 yards apart.
I marvel at the skill & sweat that went into the installation.
We have done some plastic schemes in the last 30 years, diagonly across the hill to supplement the old tiles

Would love to know why they were put in straight up the hill!!? Got plenty like that here too 3’+ deep rubble drains, most causing problems now

 

[glasshouse]

Tbh if the Google satellite went over in a dry year you can probably see them on Google maps, and put your location on in real time. That's how I've been doing it even with the maps in hand. Then I bang a post where the outfall is for later .

I used a microlight

 

[puppet]

Pilot?

 

[som farmer]

deepest one we have found, 7foot down, horse shoe pipe on slates, once the end was cleared out, a big puddle disappeared as we watched, that would have been 1800 ish.
the oldest drains, we have found, are withies laid in a trench, medieval ? Just done a little patch, the horseshoe drains there, that we found, 5ft down, surprisingly for here, stone on top, as to which way they run, no idea whatsoever, by looking at the 'obvious' line, they would have to have gone down 15/20 feet ! We dug a long trench to find a 'run out', but all we found was a free draining outcrop of stone. But you have to admire the skill and hard work, those old boys did, to place them by hand.

 

[Sharpy]

Would love to know why they were put in straight up the hill!!? Got plenty like that here too 3’+ deep rubble drains, most causing problems now

Round here the drains were all in the bottom of the rigs, which all ran straight downhill so the water was channelled to run down the field on top of the drain. One 20 acre field here has rigs running in 13 or 14 different ways. Worked fine when the whole farm was under rotation and grass was down for a max of 6 or 7 years in 10 but stop ploughing for cereals and the porosity drops and the rig bottoms get soggy.

 

[glasshouse]

deepest one we have found, 7foot down, horse shoe pipe on slates, once the end was cleared out, a big puddle disappeared as we watched, that would have been 1800 ish.
the oldest drains, we have found, are withies laid in a trench, medieval ? Just done a little patch, the horseshoe drains there, that we found, 5ft down, surprisingly for here, stone on top, as to which way they run, no idea whatsoever, by looking at the 'obvious' line, they would have to have gone down 15/20 feet ! We dug a long trench to find a 'run out', but all we found was a free draining outcrop of stone. But you have to admire the skill and hard work, those old boys did, to place them by hand.

Whats a withie?

 

[som farmer]

Whats a withie?

osier, willow sticks, these were just laid in a trench, were no longer working. That particular bit, has very obviously caused problems, those drains, 2in interlocking drains, horse shoe, and round, and hex angle clay ones. We did a better job in the 80's, dug a ditch through it, we found the old drains, when we dug it out and made a pond, the level of which never varies, it would have filled an old mill pond, we can see that, and there is stone work in the adjacent stream, all i can tell you about the mill, it was there in the doomsday book !

 

[Brisel]

You need RTK for a reliable GPS fix. A What3Words reference is ok for finding headwalls in a ditch but not accurate enough for digging up a drain in the field. Mobile phones don't have any kind of correction signal.

A bit out of the OP's area but these guys have someone who does a lot of land drainage mapping work http://northletherby.com/rural/services/professional-mapping-gps/

As above, Google Earth imagery is a very good guide. Is there a way you can use the imagery from a mobile phone to track your position. I'm aware that there's a GE app.

 

[upnortheast]

Would love to know why they were put in straight up the hill!!?

Sadly, the folk that know are long gone

 

[glasshouse]

Sadly, the folk that know are long gone

They didnt know any better, and they followed the rigs that ran straight up and down

 

[haggard143]

deepest one we have found, 7foot down, horse shoe pipe on slates, once the end was cleared out, a big puddle disappeared as we watched, that would have been 1800 ish.
the oldest drains, we have found, are withies laid in a trench, medieval ? Just done a little patch, the horseshoe drains there, that we found, 5ft down, surprisingly for here, stone on top, as to which way they run, no idea whatsoever, by looking at the 'obvious' line, they would have to have gone down 15/20 feet ! We dug a long trench to find a 'run out', but all we found was a free draining outcrop of stone. But you have to admire the skill and hard work, those old boys did, to place them by hand.

called bush drains round here (south norfolk) been told first plough deep furrow in straight line then you only have to dig a couple of foot down, ends were always piped to ditch, maybe not that long ago 1920/30's as a cost saving on clay pipe