Eighteenth century drainage
In last week’s diary entry, we were looking at how we got water from the springs on the Estate. This week, we take a look at the drainage on the Estate -and we were amazed to discover how intricate the old drainage system is.
The drainage system could date back to the late eighteenth century and was a passage of old clay piping with at least 15 brick-built manholes. The manholes were beautifully built and varied between circular, rectangular and oval with square ends. There were often multiple inlets into the chambers and generally one outlet. To find the next manhole the drainage specialists had to put their metal rods through the clay pipe outlet and listen to where it banged on the next manhole wall. Then they would know where to dig out and discover the next man hole. Some of the manholes were obvious and others were more difficult to find.
They were frequently blocked up and had to be emptied to make them efficient and some need repair work and building back up. We generally found manholes were positioned where the drains changed direction as clay piping would have only come in straight lengths.
We now have photographed all the chambers and recorded their shape and sizes. The deepest was nearly 2 metres to water level! The brick workmanship was very smart. The round shaping of some of the openings was very symmetrical and sidewalls were often a curved shape. A lot of time and trouble was obviously put into building them. They are topped with heavy stone slabs that are difficult for one man to remove. We even discovered an old jug in one of the subterranean brick chambers which we are going to get looked at by the Layers of History team in case it is dateable.
We believe that the sluice gates that we found on a couple of manhole drains may have assisted in diverting water and draining the lake if necessary. It was interesting to find that the drains even went under the beck. Some of the land near Park Cottages still seems very wet and we are wondering if there is yet another spring out there somewhere.
On Friday, we took delivery of a brand new portacabin at Manor Farm Stables. This will become the new offices for John Crutchley, who manages our Lincoln Red cattle, and Anne, his wife, who deals with all the paperwork that goes with managing such a herd. The portacabin lorry managed to get down the narrow road to the site but did struggle to get the cabin and its bell tank, which goes under the cabin and collects waste water and sewage, craned off as there were low hung electrical wires at the site. Fortunately, they succeeded, and Anne popped over to see if she liked her new workspace. How different it will be to working in the old West Wing in the Hall. As she does our bookkeeping here, she will be spending a couple of days at Manor Farm and a couple hereat the Hall.
Meanwhile, Jacqui has been experimenting in the kitchen with local ingredients again. Our plums and apples were made into a healthy, no sugar, spread and the burdock root brought in by Colin, the gardener, was combined with dandelion roots to make our own dandelion and burdock. Both got our seal of approval!
