Timothy Murphy wrote:
John Stumbles wrote:

If it's the stopcock where the water company service meets your
pipework then I think it's their responsibility and if you tell
them you can't find it they should come out and locate it and make
it accessible for you.

That's more or less what I have tried. We don't have water companies
as such here - the local council is responsible for the supply. They
tell me that they do not keep any record of where stopcocks are, so
I am hoping they have some technical way of finding mine,

But surely they're still going to be ultimately responsible for finding
the thing, even if they have to dig up half the street to do so? :-)

I've actually located something with my grand-daughter's metal
detector, though whether it is the lost stopcock I'm not sure.

Wouldn't have thought so. Unless it's a pretty sophisticated detector
the range is only going to be a few inches, and an external stop cock
will be much deeper than that. (If it was the stopcock, you'd probably
be able to trace the pipe too - assuming it's old, it will be metallic).

David