What have we dug up?

Digging up hte garden has discovered a thing. some kind of drain water connection thingy?

has a steel lid that is clamped down via 4 studs. in the centre of the lid is a threaded support (female) ready for something to go in but no idea what.

Vertically mounted. any guesses?

Since you’re a Killer I opened this thread slowly.

Are there random numbers appearing on a screen nearby?

Over engineered DIY rotary washing line thingy?

Undo the bolts then tell us. what’s the worst that could happen?

(dibs on your bikes)

That’s a NATO standard machine gun support, as used by the Operation Gladio stay behind networks in case of democractic election resulting in a government that falls behind the standards of the overlords

something that shouldn’t be that close to the surface ?

PT shaft of a vertically buried tractor

Artisan frozen sausage mount.

base for an old manual water pump ? probably got a 1-way valve under it

Home made mount for something, that’s my guess. Doesn’t look like anything water related but who knows what bodges have been done in the past.

You don’t live next door to Colin Furze do you?

Definitely an early contender for Thread of the Week!

Breather pipe to a vampire, bomber wielding, baby robins coffin.

Dunno if it’s just me but I’d be very tempted to slowly undo the four retaining bolts and see what happens/doesn’t happen.

Disclaimer : this way of thinking has not always worked out well for me in the past so don’t blame myself if you empty the North Sea of gas.

Have you dug down around it to see if it’s connected to pipes?

Thrunge gasket (imperial) innit.

The original machine had a base plate of prefabulated aluminite, surmounted by a malleable logarithmic casing in such a way that the two main spurving bearings were in a direct line with the pentametric fan. The latter consisted simply of six hydrocoptic marzlevanes, so fitted to the ambifacient lunar waneshaft that side fumbling was effectively prevented. The main winding was of the normal lotus-o-delta type placed in panendermic semi-bovoid slots in the stator, every seventh conductor being connected by a nonreversible tremie pipe to the differential girdlespring on the “up” end of the grammeters.

Swing ball set. Pro edition.

Ordnance Survey Fundamental Benchmark
(It’s not that, I am well aware)

Borehole cap for groundwater / ground gas monitoring. Is it a relatively new development?

Or a portal direct to the underworld.

…. keep digging.

Google image search using your pic comes back with some interesting suggestions:

• TM-62M anti vehicle mine (think we can discount that one)
• Reddit discussion about an unidentified four bolt object under a drive which turned out to be a hydraulic post lift (doesn’t look quite the same):
  https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/comments/ub0cb3/unearthed_this_industriallooking_column_while/
• Discussion about old vehicle axles being used by surveyors as boundary markers. Is it near the corner of the property?
  https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/comments/1ba3eif/what_is_this_about_12_inches_across_metal_an_inch/

I think it’s the base for an aerial.

I think it’s the valve that controls the supply of food to the hamsters.

Hate to be serious but yellow paint and four bolts says old cast iron gas main to me.

+1 for borehole cap or an old well cap

Artisan frozen sausage mount

Just to be clear here, is the mount artisanal or the sausages?

It’s the top of a mast from a Clanger musical boat.
The Iron Chicken will be along soon to take it back for repair.

It’s a borehole. I’ve seen hundreds of them and inspect them for the environment agency.

Here’s one I photographed last week.

Just to be clear here, is the mount artisanal or the sausages?

I hadn’t thought that far ahead. Which may also be Killer’s excuse if they undo the bolts….

Its cracked anyway. You can see the big crack where a stud is

Dig round it some more…

You get all the best jobs Adam.

I haven’t stepped out off the office in months.

@joshvegas I haven’t been into the new Leeds office since they moved last Oct as I’m pretty much always on site at the moment!

Finished doing EA stuff now though and starting on IDB stuff.

ads678 – assume they cap them for safety? In which case, nerdily interested to know why the hole in top, assume to prevent any gas build up?

Following with interest. Interesting find. I’d be unable to rebury it too. Curiosity can be risky tho.

If it’s the borehole ads678 describes (seems v likely) is that going down to the water table. Does it gush, potentially I wonder?
Remember to get the Mrs to video as you take the bolts out. Might make you a few p on YouTube.
Hope it’s not gas!
Better have a bung ready.

The ones I’ve been looking at are ground water boreholes rather than gas. The hole in the top is to attach a tap/valve to. Not all have the valve attached though. Think it depends on ground water levels or something, some would have water spewing out of the hole if the valve wasn’t fitted! I don’t deal with the actual monitoring though, just checking the infrastructure.

The one in the OP looks like it’s decommissioned and it isn’t used anymore…..one of the things I’ve been doing is trying to help the EA figure what they have and what is still in use….

@killer – where about are you btw?

This is one with the valve fitted.

You could see if it is on the BGS borehole map – BGS