Gas works

At reference 1, I deferred noticing the gas board holes of Manor Green Road. Which I now do, moving from east to west, from Lower Court Road to Kendor Avenue, starting at Costcutter.

Most of the holes seemed to be between three and four feet deep at their lowest points. Some concrete and tarmac above, but no chalk that I could see below.

My money is on gas being one of the two pipes above and to the right of the orange spot, neither of which look very mains. Who knows what all the other stuff above it is. Maybe someone has the big picture.

Maybe the Ordnance Survey, whom I believe have taken on at least some of the mapping functions of the Land Registry, coordinate the construction of a digital map of all the underground pipes and cables of all the utilities of all of our country? For sale to interested parties? Would it be worth the considerable expense? See reference 4 for a sidelight on this.

While a bit further down we have what looks like an old, cast iron gas main. So what is going on above the orange spot in the previous snap?

Hopefully, what I take to be data cables inside rather knocked-about earthenware casings will survive the operation. The vacuum excavator noticed at reference 2 had not been that gentle. Or maybe it was the people before wot dun the damage.

Complete with data cables and little tower for the water meter.

Zooming in, my guess is that the elbowed pipe left of the right hand orange spot is copper water intake for the house behind.

But what is the two inch pipe running along the road above the left hand orange spot? I think the yellow pipe below is the gas intake for the house behind, but where does it connect to the mains supply? It does not seem to be lined up with the yellow pipe to be seen to the left of the right hand orange spot.

A four inch iron pipe, running along the road, with a shiny new connection point. Gas main awaiting further developments?

Plus, down the hole, lots of set, yellow foam. Looks very much like the stuff window fitters use to bed new window units into old window holes in walls. But what is it doing here?

PS 1: this morning, Monday, JDT were back on the job with one of their vacuum excavators.

It looks as if the boss of JDT is another registration plate nut, with this vehicle being No.25. But is he in the same league as the chap from the (now dissolved) First Line Recovery, who seemed to have managed to number his vehicles from 1? See, for example, reference 3.

PS 2: the new-to-me Dell laptop is being a bit tiresome this morning. It keeps doing stuff - clicking and moving the pointer - when I don't want it to. Working on why it is doing this. Maybe I will get Gemini to remind me how to turn down the sensitivity of the touch pad.

I have also found a little rubber peg down between the G, H and B keys, an alternative to using the touch pad for moving the pointer about. Rather hard to get at and I remember these pegs being rather taller, not that I ever got into the habit of making much use of them.

PS 3: maybe now that our new leader has dished out a few lollipops and played with the machinery of government, he will get back down to the business of government - which presently involves making and then selling difficult decisions - rudely interrupted by his arrival from up north.

For machinery of government, see reference 5. We shall see whether rebranding the Cabinet Office the Office of the Prime Minister is worth all the time and energy that it will soak up. But, I suppose, a near mandatory rite of passage for new arrivals.

PS 4: 20260729: excavator No.4 on the job first thing this morning.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/07/circuit-one.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/07/fake-205.html. Slowed down slightly by this post not containing the search term 'jdt'.

Reference 3: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2021/03/no30.html.

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/10/trolley-732.html.

Reference 5: The good, the bad and the mixed of Andy Burnham’s government overhaul: PM should have gone further in scrapping Cabinet Office, while handing Lisa Nandy an expanded brief is a gamble - Stephen Bush, Financial Times - 2026.

Group search key: 20260719.