Water, Water, Everywhere . . . #2

In contrast to the last post with this title, this was an entirely man made occurrence. It all started when Martin went to fix the outside tap that was the subject of our last 'flood' post.

All went well up to the point where he went to switch the water back on at the stopcock, and couldn't. Much angst followed, and when eventually the stopcock budged, it budged in its entirety and came off!

This left us with no water in the house, but far too much outside, as water welled up from the broken stopcock, and streamed across to the nearest drain. We were straight on the phone to Welsh Water, who said they'd send a man round as soon as possible. In the meantime we tried to 'harvest' as much of the water as we could - scooping it out with an old squash bottle, and filling watering cans and water butts, and watering everything in the garden along the way.

The 'man' duly arrived - and said he'd need to call in a 'gang' - which contrary to what you might expect turned out to be a gang of one!

To give the 'gang' his due, he'd soon created a good sized hole, and with the mains water switched off, fitted us a brand new stopcock (which has obviously gone through a major redesign since our last one was fitted 30+ years ago!).

From this:to this:

We now have water inside, and no water outside, which is as it should be - the hole outside is partially filled in, but as with these things, not everything that came out will go back in! Another 'gang' (which might be 2 men this time!) are due tomorrow to 'make good'.


It made for an interesting day anyway, and one we'll remember for things other than England losing to Germany 4-1 in the World Cup.