Drain layout query - Unused part of system?

[ajdaniels]

My house is turn of the century victorian - typical London terrace. Running along the back of the house is comunal run for my house & the house next door. This joins a run that goes right under the house to the front.

However, at this junction this is another run that goes about 5 ft UP the garden at which point it is silted up. I was advised that as it appears unused it should be blocked up to stop vermin.

What could this have been for? The house would have had a toilet on the ground floor but not near this. The garden is v small and I cant see any evidence of outbuildings in my or other houses. Thames water mention a possible rainwater gully - was it possibly used for yard drainage & is now redundant? Did they used to do this?

My nightmare scenario is that it is used to join the house behind mine to my drainage system. If this is so we will be getting a build up under our garden as it is silted although the neighbours have not reported any problems. Did Victorian drains ever cover the house behind? Certainly they also have a system of their own going to the front of their property so this seems unlikely but I still would like to know what this is for.

Thanks

[Tony McC]

If there was a collapsed connection from next door behind, you;d know about it by now! Within 24 hours or normal use, there downstairs bog would start surcharging and the sink wouldn't drain.

It's most likely that Thames Water are right - there was probably an old yard gully, an outdoor privy, or summat similar down there years ago.

Dig down, find the end of the line, and get it properly capped, which involves exposing a good 150mm all round of the end of the pipe, wraping it in a couple or three placky carrier bags, and surrounding the lot with a couple of buckets of good mortar or concrete.