Where to find maps of local water mains around a village?

[Morrisman]

There’s a flood on a road into my village, it appeared several weeks ago during the severe rains, followed by freezes, we had. But it hasn't gone away. Every other flood in the area has gone down and dried up, but this still covers half the road.
Severn Trent say it is just water runoff from the field next to the road, but I’m sure they had a perpetual small leak in the same place a few years ago, as there would be a small run of water cross the pavement, along the road and down a drain, even in the height of summer.

Then one day I saw a 20’ fountain of water behind the hedge, and several Severn Trent Water Authority vans nearby. And then the damp spot disappeared totally.

Which makes me think there is a water main nearby. They had 3 major bursts in other places no more than a few miles away, in the same week we had the big frosts.
I‘ve searched the web but can’t find anything showing the general routing of water mains.

This is the area, marked in red. Not far from J14 M6, West Midlands.

 

[Kayos]

Line Search Before You Dig

If no replies before morning, I will do the search when I fire up the work laptop in the morning

 

[brightspark]

a couple of bent welding rods

 

[DAPPH]

If the plans were put on OS maps as over lays on a computer by the Chinese as often happened in the late 1980's & early 90's they may well be a few hundred metres off course .

BT had a hell of a time locating underground cable buried deep from such computerised maps /plans .

I used to know a gal ( Joe ) who's 36 yr old bungalow was inundated with raw sewage to a depth of 20 inches or more .

Local water board in the Worcester area said , " That's impossible the main sewer is 60 mtr down hill away from your garden ."

Subsequent removal of the floor boards revealed a ruptured main sewer running diagonally under her bungalow .vomiting a fountain of raw sewage .
The maps were way off and the routes were a good 2 inches off on the plans supplied as evidence by the water board.

Here at my place an old filled in mine air vent over 100 feet across from the late 1800's closing is shown as being to the north west of our bungalow some 250 yards away , John an old timer tells me is is almost opposite us 50 yards in on the other side of the road . I trust the guy , as told me a sink hole developed after some really heavy March to June rains , his 11 yr old pal roped down into it one Saturday and the sides collapsed about 30 foot down inside the hole killing his pal some 70 years ago . Seems that the coal board also put their mine plans on to digitalised OS ones around the same period .

 

[DAPPH]

a couple of bent welding rods

Guess what I was given for Crimbo ?
But mine are posh ones , accurate 90 degree bent brass rods 3mm thick approx nine inches long with genuine four inch long copper sleeves for them to rotate in . Brass collared top & bottom of the copper tube so they stay in the handles .

So far we have only had a few hours playing with them outside , amusing because Olha our Ukrainian refugee who believes in such things due to living out in the middle of nowhere back in the Ukraine used them & discovered strong indications of something running down & across the garden . You should have seen her face when I told her she had just found the route for the garage water supply buried a metre down & the waste /foul water drain at a similar depth for the washing machine that is also out in the garage.

 

[addjunkie]

I inherited a pair when I bought this place. Really handy before a venture out with the digger. Shame they dont find phone cables!

 

[chrismac]

I am surprised the local water authority did not react to the report of flood water from a potential mains water supply, they usually react quite quick when I have ever reported any issue as the cost of loosing water through bursts is huge,

 

[droopsnoot]

If the plans were put on OS maps as over lays on a computer by the Chinese as often happened in the late 1980's & early 90's they may well be a few hundred metres off course .

BT had a hell of a time locating underground cable buried deep from such computerised maps /plans .

I used to know a gal ( Joe ) who's 36 yr old bungalow was inundated with raw sewage to a depth of 20 inches or more .

Local water board in the Worcester area said , " That's impossible the main sewer is 60 mtr down hill away from your garden ."

Subsequent removal of the floor boards revealed a ruptured main sewer running diagonally under her bungalow .vomiting a fountain of raw sewage .
The maps were way off and the routes were a good 2 inches off on the plans supplied as evidence by the water board.

Here at my place an old filled in mine air vent over 100 feet across from the late 1800's closing is shown as being to the north west of our bungalow some 250 yards away , John an old timer tells me is is almost opposite us 50 yards in on the other side of the road . I trust the guy , as told me a sink hole developed after some really heavy March to June rains , his 11 yr old pal roped down into it one Saturday and the sides collapsed about 30 foot down inside the hole killing his pal some 70 years ago . Seems that the coal board also put their mine plans on to digitalised OS ones around the same period .

This sort of thing is why it impressed me that the plans of subterranean London are so accurate. I was watching a documentary about building Crossrail, and they were tunnelling through a part where they've got very little clearance between the underground tube below, and some Victorian sewers above (or vice versa), and yet the plans dating back decades were so accurate that they managed to thread it through the relatively tiny gap without hitting anything. My inner cynic suggests that it's probably because those plans are of very old things, and date back to a time when things were done properly, though someone must be doing a decent job of updating them. Contrast that with a local road-building project which was put back by several weeks once the water company came along to do their bit, because water and/or drain pipes weren't where they were supposed to be. Hmm, there's a theme developing here.

 

[Cobbler]

I inherited a pair when I bought this place. Really handy before a venture out with the digger. Shame they dont find phone cables!

At one time I worked with a guy that was mustard at divining, he could find phone cables, used to use it in preference to the supplied tracking kit. This was at the time leylines were in the news & being discussed & I tried to get him to see if he could pick anything up. Just got “not interested” I would have been though! Ive tried it several times, but I can’t do it, when my colleague did it, it looked like he had walked into a brick wall. I was never sure whether he controlled the sticks or the sticks controlled him.

 

[pedrobedro]

I am surprised the local water authority did not react to the report of flood water from a potential mains water supply, they usually react quite quick when I have ever reported any issue as the cost of loosing water through bursts is huge,

Me too I've reported a few over the last couple of years and they get out to them pretty sharp. A friend of mine now deceased was an architect tech and he had a CD with all the local mains and drains from the authority and it was supposed to be paid for access to it but his was a copy and you had to set the date on the computer back to the 80s to access it. We did have one domestic drain that was not on it but he tried the divining thing but no success. We found it by putting rods down and rattling them vigorously.

 

[Morrisman]

I am surprised the local water authority did not react to the report of flood water from a potential mains water supply, they usually react quite quick when I have ever reported any issue as the cost of loosing water through bursts is huge,

They have, they said it’s water running off the field adjacant to the flood.

 

[AdW]

Line Search Before You Dig

Severn Trent aren't LSBUD members so you can't use that route.

You can register on the Digdat website and buy STL maps through them for a fee, or you can book an appointment to view maps at STL offices which I think is free of charge.

 

[Erie Fred]

They have, they said it’s water running off the field adjacant to the flood.

One method I know of, is test the runoff for chlorine.

 

[Gritineye]

Back in the 70s I was building one of a pair of identical bungalows on quite a steep hill, the other (not quite so identical but they tried) one was being built by the owners amateur mates.

They checked with the water company who told them the 3 inch main crossed the road some 100 yards up hill. Guess what, it ran straight past their plot, and they dug right through it when connecting the sewer!

Huge fountain of water and flooding, the garage down the road had it's fuel tanks topped up for free, took a while to fix all that.

Water man said their maps were useless and the only person who actually really knew where all the pipes ran was a old retired waterman and they'd still always gone to him for confirmation until he died a short time before.

 

[Robotstar5]

We got this during the sale of my mums house, they wanted to know if we had "build over consent" as the back of the property as it was within 3 metres of the sewer, don't know who supplied the map.

 

[cheb]

It's a shame the James Randi Prize has been discontinued, you dowsers would be meeeeelionares.

 

[Morrisman]

We got this during the sale of my mums house, they wanted to know if we had "build over consent" as the back of the property as it was within 3 metres of the sewer, don't know who supplied the map.

View attachment 436295

At my last house I built a big concrete workshop in the back garden, carefully avoiding the main sewer that ran through the centre of my house, as evidenced by the supplied map of drains etc, and by two manhole covers….
….or so I thought.
After I was done and started tidying away around the garden I found a big heavy round drain cover, with a 12” sewer underneath it, right at the extreme end of my property …. and it ran diagonally across my garden, right underneath the big concrete workshop I had just spent two years building……

So the water boards drawing was 30’ out of position for that sewer, which was the main sewer for my whole street. I had visions, nightmares, of it caving in, and the water board demolishing my garage to repair it, massive fines, costs, street overflowing with human dung etc etc

Some ten years later I sold the house, expecting my faux pas to be discovered in a search, and the sale to cave in, prosecution, charges, costs…… but in reality I paid £160 for some sort of indemnity insurance and that was it, house was sold, no more drama.

 

[dave h 2]

At one time I worked with a guy that was mustard at divining, he could find phone cables, used to use it in preference to the supplied tracking kit. This was at the time leylines were in the news & being discussed & I tried to get him to see if he could pick anything up. Just got “not interested” I would have been though! Ive tried it several times, but I can’t do it, when my colleague did it, it looked like he had walked into a brick wall. I was never sure whether he controlled the sticks or the sticks controlled him.

How would he know? Could be anything - even though the leyline thing was made up.

 

[brightspark]

It's a shame the James Randi Prize has been discontinued, you dowsers would be meeeeelionares.

it works for most folk gave my mate a go up our small field and theres a high pressure sewerage mains runs across.i didnt tell him where he walked up and they crossed quarter of way up field. marked the spot and told him to walk back down and they crossed within a yard of each other and it was spot on

 

[dave h 2]

Works for 75% of people though I found if you play hunt the silver foil hidden under a carpet the target is under your heel and not where the rods cross