Identifying underground pipes

[Gary]

Hi all,

I have a broken manhole on my drive, with an inspection gully at the bottom of it. Further down the garden, when digging a hole, I came across a clay pipe, which appears to run directly in line with the manhole. At the bottom of the manhole is growing an alarming amount of green stuff, weeds, grass etc. In short it appears to be unused these days. Can anybody advise who would be the best people to speak to, to find out whether ir not I can fill the manhole in and remove the chunk of pipe running through the hole in the garden, or whether I need to leave well alone and re-instate the manhole on the drive?

It doesn't tally up with our drains / sewers (thank God, or there'd be an awful smell on the drive!)

Thanks

Gary

[The Natural Philosopher]

My guess is its an old sewer that ran to a cess pit, or its part of a soakaway system.

[Owain]

It might be

(a) an outlet to a disused septic tank and the house has since been put on mains drainage - neighbours might know if the houses weren't built with mains drainage.

(b) an outlet to a soakaway from the roof gutters, but would probably be wet if this were the case.

Owain