a wrote:

Not for definite here, but if there was a root ingress into the sewer pipe
and you've been hack at the roots, you may have dislodged the sewer. This
is highly unlikely, but it could happen.


Well hopefully not! I do know that the house next door but one had a huge
sycamore tree that had grown into the sewers and the council had to some and
sort that one out - I dont know how far down they went though.


The tree sap that's lying under the tree is creosote, that is what

creosote

is extracted from.


I didnt know that so that may be cause.


When you saw the water flowing into the hole last week, was it after a

heavy

downpour of rain, even on the day before you went back to the hole ?


It had rained but not heavily that I know of. I guess it could just have
been ground water, I was just surprised at how quickly it was flowing - I
would have expected an 'oozing' rather than a flow (but we have so much clay
that I suppose you can get stores of water quite easily). I havent seen it
since, but then again I havent dug in that area any more :-)




AH clay. Dig down a few feet into that round here, and

(a) it seeps in and fllods

(b) it smells like drains.


Which, when you consider where all the soluble remains of dead things
end up - in the groundwater - is not surpising.