Thanks everyone - I'll look into the suggested systems - did they work?

Regarding why, I've already checked the mains water supply - no problems
there. We do live in a clay area and the water table can be high - well
above the cellar floor.

The sump itself, which is outside, has a deep drain running from it into the
landdrain system. The latter is OK - I've checked it and it works fine. The
drain from the sump is a bit odd as it is a few inches above the level of
the drain from the cellar to the sump - there is no way that the drain can
remove all the water from the cellar. Anyway, I have reason to believe is it
totally blocked and I know there is no backflow from the drain into the
sump.

When we bailed out the sump - it is about 7 feet deep! we could see water
welling up into it from the centre of its floor really quite vigorously -
after heavy rain it keeps our pump going quite steadily!

Anyway, there are two possibilities.

1. The crack is old but for some reason the ground water has risen
recently. I don't believe this personally but I suppose the clay sub-soil
may have cracked allowing a new water path into sump.

2. The sump floor has recently cracked, again perhaps triggered by the dry
summer.

I suppose I could try cleaning out the bottom of the sump and putting a new
concrete base in, but I would have thought that the incoming water would
prevent a seal from being formed.

All thoughts are welcome.

Harry

"Tony Williams" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Harry Ziman wrote:
We have lived in our Victorian farmhouse for 2 years and the
cellar has always been bone dry.

In the last two weeks it has suddenly started flooding -
groundwater flows into an external sump which then backs up into
the cellar. We have blocked all the major sources of water
ingress, but we are now finding water seeping through joints in
the floor which is made of brick sized blocks.

We had a similar problem about 15 years ago. No cellar,
but suddenly the two old cottages started to be wet
around the walls. The cottages were on mildly sloping
ground, with a ditch uphill, about 200 yards away.

Turned out that the ditch was overflowing, and a clever
system of land drains that were there to channel any
overflow away from the cottages was in a state of disrepair.

So could it be worth investigating why the water has
suddenly appeared.... something blocked up on the exterior
land somewhere, and/or why that sump isn't draining away?

--
Tony Williams.