Grumble Posted July 23, 2020 Share Posted July 23, 2020 Hi I've never ever posted a blog before, so bear with me, please. At the bottom of my garden is a brick structure. Part of my garden was handed over during the war and was a field in which part of the US 101st ariborne were camped. My house we believe (but have no proof) was officers' quarters. The house we know was built in 1932. This brick structure is 6 ft long, 2 ft wide and about 18 inches (6 courses of brick) high. It is capped with 4 very heavy 2ft by 1.5 ft slabs. It appears to have been built on a cast concrete base, the base has no joints and, sadly, no inscribed dates. Along along one side, call it the front, at ground level, are 4 more 2ft * 1.5 ft slabs giving firm ground to stand on. We have no idea what this was used for or how old it is. There is nothing on it or in it to give us a clue. It has been suggested by a couple of people that it was a field kitchen. Anyone out there know whether it might be? About 15 ft away from this structure, buried in the ground, is a galvanised steel tank. It is about 2ft long by 1.5 ft wide and about 2 ft deep, so about 35/40 gallons worth of storage of some liquid. Water? Fuel? During WWII my house had no mains water supply, only a well at the back of the house some 200 ft away from this tank. Is the tank and the brick structure somehow part of the same funtion? There is no inlet or outlet pipe to the tank and it does not look like there ever was. There is what appears to me to be an overflow pipe at the very top of the tank but it only passes through the tank wall and then stops. The tank is surrounded by about 2 inch width of gravel but that suggests to me, dig a hole bigger than the tank, drop the tank in and then backfill around it with the gravel They say a picture speaks a thousand words but I am not good at uploading pictures but if anyone out there is interested I can give it a go because I am very curious to learn what these two things might have been used for. Hoping someone might be interested Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Le Prof Posted July 26, 2020 Share Posted July 26, 2020 Welcome, @Grumble Sorry there's been no immediate reaction, but despite your detailed description, it's a little difficult to visualise. Plus, seeing the actual construction tends to give a better feeling of when and why it was built. If you know how to attach pictures to emails, let me know and I'll send you an email address, to send them to and I'll upload the pictures from there for you. Military sites are prone to all kinds of enigmatic structures, some of which were only used for very short periods before being abandoned. It's quite possible the structures you refer to are to do with the military if, as you say, the 101st were based there. Also, since it's separated from the house, it could be to do with ablutions for tented accomodation nearby. Best Regards, Adrian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grumble Posted July 26, 2020 Author Share Posted July 26, 2020 Thank you for this Adrian. Yes I do know how to attach photos to email and now have several pictures of both the "coffin" and the tank. Thank you also for the offer to upload them, so if you let me have your em address I will send you some photos. Incidentally, my grandfather was L-C, machine gun corps, killed Sept 1917 Passchendaele Look forward to hearing from you KR Graham Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Le Prof Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 Dear @Grumble Email address sent. Best Regards, Adrian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scrunt & Farthing Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 Sounds like it might have been a latrine. The overflow pipe taking the clear run-off. The remainder decomposes like an earth closet. Simple and effective where there are no mains drains. S&F Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Le Prof Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 (edited) Dear Graham, @Grumble Below are your photos, and commentry "Attached are the photos of the brick structure and the below ground tank. The first photo shows the "coffin" (our nickname for it because it is that size) with the four 2'*1.5' capping slabs removed. Inside it was full of broken bricks and rubble. I excavated all that in the hope of finding some clue as to the date of its construction but nothing at all, no coins, no inscribed dates, just rubble. The other two photos show how it was before the excavation of the inside. Ignore the blue shed to one side and the logs on the other, we put them there! The photos of the tank show how it was, sunk level with the ground, and also my excavation around it to find that the pipe at the bottom was actually blanked off. The only open pipe is visible at the top of one photo. It stops just the other side of the tank wall. The tank is about 20 feet away from the "coffin" and is the other side of that little blue shed. Someone has suggested that the tank might have been a latrine but I do not think it is big enough for that. It is only 1.5 ft wide 2 ft long and about 2 ft deep. That would give it a capacity of only about 30-40 gallons. I think it is either a water or fuel storage tank. We have no way of knowing whether the two items go together or were put in at different times for unconnected purposes. We only know they have been there for more than 20 years. The house did not have mains water until the late 1950's, it had a well. The well was more than 200 feet away from these structures. We bought this house 20 years ago. Remember we have no idea of the date when these items in the garden were built. It could be any year after 1925 when the land was originally purchased. The house was built in 1932. Thanks for the offer to upload the photos. Hopefully someone might recognise what they were. We are clueless, except my father-in-law (a rat of Tobruk) reckoned it was a field kitchen but, in his old age, he was fixated about the war. He was a POW for 3 years and in later life the war became his reason for being. Everything became related to the war, hence our scepticism about whether he was right." I tend to agree with @Scrunt & Farthing that the gravel surrounding the tank is a ground drain or soakaway to allow water from the top of the tank to diffuse more evenly into the ground. There would have been no necessity to use the gravel to refil the hole, since there would have been plenty of excess soil after digging it out. The base could have been for a field kitchen, but then I think the tank would be too eloborate, waste water could have gone straight to a ground drain. It is more likely the base for a field latrine. The toilet seat and boxes with drain assembly would have been in wood, and mounted on the brick base, the sewage arriving in the tank. The liquid part would overflow into the ground drain, and the solids remain in the tank for someone to have to empty periodically as a guard room punishment. This modern US Army publication describes a urine ground drain built in a similar fashion. If a soakage pit is used, it should be dug 4-feet (1.2-meters) square and 4-feet (1.2-meters) deep and filled with rocks, flattened tin cans, bricks, broken bottles, or similar nonporous rubble. Below is a standard US Army latrine tent, too big for your system, but then yours may hevr been 'Officers Only', and it gives you a good idea of the layout. Info from: https://www.med-dept.com/articles/ww2-medical-tentage/ Possibly the slabs on the ground are part of the same cnstruction, to keep your feet clean. Here's some German soldiers with a similar thing (I had to find a 'polite' photo as a demonstration). Best Regards, Adrian Edited July 28, 2020 by Le Prof Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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