what is this thing in my garden?

[knighty]

hunted around our garden pulling up drain covers turning taps on/off, flushing toilets etc. etc. trying to map out all the drains and where they go before we start changing things

but pulled up a drain cover and found this... I've got no idea what is it

it looks like muddy water has come up it, I'm assuming regularly... there's mud/sludge in there and there's a ring of it around the top of the pipe

looks to be a steel or cast pipe coming up











need to find something longer to shove down it... see how fat it goes (I should have done that earlier, I was knackered and gave up)

[AGT]

Stand pipe / hydrant type of thing

The square head part looks like you would drop an extension handle and turn it so some kind of valve?

Can your water authority provide maps?

[Stinsy]

Looks like a standpipe to me!

Water comes out the pipe, valve is operated with the square thing…

[Gareth J]

Hydrant;

https://www.avkuk.co.uk/en-gb/product-f ... /29-91-003

Fire hydrants usually have cast covers and are, for obvious reasons, easily accessible from the road so unlikely to be theirs and certainly not in service. It may imply that you have a big main running underneath.

[resybaby]

fire hydrant or a manual air release valve (more likely if at the brow of a hill or dip in a valley).

the square section is the opening part of the valve, water will come out of the other.

Do you have water utikity equipment in your land?
they arnt neccasarily on your deeds as water companies tend to rely on statutory powes of access rather than formal legal agreements to install and maintain.

[ivan]

It looks just like the fire hydrants we use inside, but the cover is wrong. Most fire hydrants have covers with the shape of a small oblong with two corners shaved off. However, there are hydrants with other styles of covers - particularly if they're old. Check the cover - If it's a fire hydrant, it usually has the letters FH embossed in the cover, and there should be a low yellow 'H' sign somewhere nearby (usually 3-6feet away). However, there are similar valves used by water authority for other purposes such as injecting water supplies from tankers in the event of a serious mains failure.

[knighty]

it's weird it looks like muddy/dirty water has been coming out of it... maybe it's disconnected now?

I'll stick something a bit longer down it and see if that valve is closed

it's in a weird position, we have a stopcock on the lane past our house, that's about 80m away from the house, that hydrant is probably half way between house and lane... so I'd assume water main is under/along side the lane

the cover over it isn't original, must have been swapped at some point, it's not the right size and it's not fitted right

lane has tarmac but no footpaths etc. guess there's probably no hydrants there so they installed one here

[Moxi]

It could be a washout point to flush the main periodically

Moxi

[dan_b]

Radioactive waste outflow pipe. Run.

[knighty]

I've just realised... in stead of water coming out of it, it could well have been filling up

we've not sorted land drainage yet - when there's long or heavy rain there's a steam running off that grass area

if it's been filling then soaking away, that could have left it full of mud/silt/whatever