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Recently had a blocked drain and now have one mystery pipe. I don't know the correct terminology so I'll do my best to explain.
My house has 2 manhole covers (the rectangular kind). First one outside the front door (on the side of the house) and the second one in the front garden. The second is a straight through type leading to the main sewage drains under the road. The first one has a pipe from the kitchen and the bathroom but there is another mystery pipe which looks like it's from the garden/garage. I'm at the top of a hill and the end of the road, and as far as know there has never been another house on this side. It's a 1930's build so pretty sure it wouldn't be from an outside toilet.
I know i could ask to see the sewage pipe plans but just wondering if it could be something i'm missing?
Could be rainwater (maybe from the garage). Rainwater would likely be combined with sewerage on a property of that age
If you're at the head of the run i.e. yours is the first manhole, it's unlikely there will be any plans showing your sewers,a s they are private. If there are houses connected before yours then yours could be shown on sewer records plans but I wouldn't hold my breath.
If the other pipe is coming from the direction of the garage it could be taking roof water or some land drainage (it shouldn't be taking land drainage but old sewers had all sorts coming in).
Drainage to new builds today is designed to be separate but lots of old house drainage had roof/surface water coming in to foul sewers, then out to main combined sewers in the road.
Could have been a feed from an old bathroom/washroom located elsewhere. Or maybe a surface water drain - I'm sure they're needed to be kept separate from foul water drains now, but that probably wasn't always the case.
Does it look like it's in use (i.e. is it wet)? If so it's probably surface water.
edit: slightly beaten to it.
but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
I think its a good idea that you do
Are you sure it isn't an old vent pipe? Our 1930's build had a pipe running from the manhole cover to the boundary and I worked out it used to be a vent pipe (now buried under successive generations of driveway). It would have had a cap that looks a bit like a periscope on it originally right on the boundary. About half the houses in the street seem to have them still and they were to equalise the pressure in the sewer system. Ours had been broken and buried for years - local plumber said don't worry about it!
It was all wet but then its directly opposite the toilet drain so that splashes everywhere when flushed.
1930s could easily be combined rather than separate foul/storm. Also it used to be fairly common to add a bit of surface flow at the head of a foul run to help flush the pipes through now and then.