Micko wrote:

When I went to turn off the mains water I found that there is no
stop cock inside the house and that
someone(?) had tar-macced over the one on the pavement outside.

Have you looked under the floor where the pipe enters the house? Ours
(1930s) is under the bedroom floor just inside the window. Outside the
pipe run isn't perpendicular to anything (diagonal across garden) but
enters the house square with the nearest cold tap.

--
Scott

Where are we going and why am I in this handbasket?