Guernsey Press

Cesspit found in Victorian walled garden explains its barren patch

A FORGOTTEN Victorian cesspit, which has been blighting the growing attempts of gardeners at the Victorian Walled Kitchen Garden, will now be used to help deal with the garden's flooding.

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Since work began to restore the garden at Saumarez Park started being restored a decade ago, volunteers have been growing heritage varieties of fruit and vegetables.

However, in the northeast corner the plants failed to thrive.

'We tried cabbages, we tried peas, we tried beans,' Guernsey Botanical Trust director Ivan Le Tissier said.

'Nothing grew.'

So volunteer Alan Ritchie dug a test hole. And one foot down he found a brick wall.

Investigations uncovered two large chambers.

The largest was more than 8ft-long and 9ft-deep.

Much of the digging was carried out by the Community Service Team, who excavated the pits using spades and buckets.

It was eventually revealed that an entire Victorian septic drainage system was buried under the planting beds.

It is believed they served the toilets at the old function hall – which is now the cafe.

The toilets were shown on the 1898 Ordinance Survey map.

However, the separate cesspit and soak-away had been abandoned by 1936, when the States of Guernsey engineers' plans shows an array of pipework but no cesspit in the garden.

Community Service supervisor Martyn Brehaut said they had uncovered lots of items from the pits, where they had been backfilled.

'There were about 50 or 60 old bottles. Beer bottles, wine bottles, Marmite jars and ink bottles, as well as car headlights, old boots and slates,' he said.

Now the pits have been uncovered, the plan is to put them to use.

The garden has long had problems with minor flooding, so it is now planned that pipework will be installed to take the run-off to the pits.

The pits themselves will be covered with railway sleepers and then a thin layer of earth. The soak-aways will be particularly important, as the botanical trust is currently planning its new gatehouse development, which will create more roof areas.

The garden is currently closed for the winter, but it will re-open on 1st April, by which time the pits will have been covered and made safe.

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