A hole was dug just past the return of the house, to located the original pipe. We found it and as expected it was lead. Whilst digging, we came across this old drain/sewer:
It certainly wasn't in use as the channel was full of soil, but the design was interesting; made from slate and roofed with granite rocks. You can see the corner of the return in the picture, the water pipe was found to the left of the drain as seen here:
Based upon the location of the pipe, we began digging by the door of the mews at the opposite end of the garden, in an effort to locate where the water pipe entered the garden and to save us having to dig the entire centre of the garden up (which has evidence of a cobblestown pathway some 18" below the surface).
The hole became deeper and wider, deeper and wider and after several combined hours of searching there was no water pipe to be found, despite the hole at the opposite end being directly in line with where it should be:
Even after removing this colossal drain, there was still no sign of the water pipe, some 28"-30" down:
After digging a test hole about a quarter way up the garden, it transpired the pipe runs all over the place; the builders must have simply laid it where it fell.
So upon re-evaluating, it was decided to dig a new trench around the garden for a new pipe:
Patrick got the unenviable task of cutting through the mews floor, leading to the stop cock:
I had to look up what the heck a stop cock was, LOL. It's a valve (in American English usage). More clues as to where all the junk and dirt piles came from in the Youtube video I saw about cleaning up the backyard (garden), which I believe was produced in 2015 (if I recall it correctly).
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