Ludlow · SY8

Emergency Drainage in Ludlow

What to do first when a tank overflows, sewage backs up or a drain floods, and how to reach a local specialist once the immediate risk is contained. Serving Ludlow and the surrounding villages, including Bromfield, Caynham, Ashford Carbonel, Clee Hill.

Call 01743 562954 Describe your problem

Photo: Tips For Travellers · CC BY 2.0

Some drainage problems can wait for a convenient appointment. Sewage backing up into a bathroom cannot. Neither can an overflowing septic tank or cesspit, a collapsed drain flooding a yard, or a treatment plant in alarm at a holiday let.

When a system fails in the Ludlow district, geography sets the stakes. The Teme, Corve and Ledwyche Brook are close to many tanks, so escaping effluent finds protected water quickly — the Environment Agency hotline comes first if it does. On Clee Hill, winter access is the complication: containment (no water into the system, everyone away from what has escaped, covers closed) buys time when the lanes are at their worst and reaching the property takes longer than anyone would like.

Outside Ludlow itself, off-mains is simply how south Shropshire works. The Corvedale, the Clee slopes and the Teme valley are dotted with properties on private systems, many of them older installations that predate modern standards, and a good number still arranged in ways the 2020 rules no longer allow.

How emergency drainage works, in full →

Access and practicalities around Ludlow

The lanes here are proper south Shropshire lanes: high-banked, single-track and steep on the hill climbs. Clee Hill properties add altitude and exposure, and in winter access planning is part of the job. Which routes a tanker can take and which it cannot is local knowledge worth having before anything is booked.

Local watercourses around Ludlow

The Teme, the Corve and the Ledwyche Brook drain the district, all watercourses the Environment Agency cares about. Plenty of older tanks in these valleys were piped to a brook or ditch in a previous era, precisely the arrangement that now has to be upgraded to a treatment plant or drainage field.

What to do right now

Stop using water in the property. No toilets, showers, dishwasher or washing machine, because every litre that goes in has to come out somewhere
Keep people and animals well away from standing sewage, and wash hands and any skin that has touched it thoroughly
Never enter a septic tank, cesspit or treatment plant, and never lean in. These are confined spaces holding hydrogen sulphide and methane, and the air in them can kill in seconds
Keep tank covers closed and secure, and keep children and pets away from any cover that has been lifted or damaged
If sewage is reaching a ditch, stream, brook or river, report it to the Environment Agency incident hotline on 0800 80 70 60, which is staffed around the clock
If effluent has entered the house, shut off the affected rooms and keep it away from anywhere food is prepared or stored
Photograph the affected area before any clean-up, for your insurer and for whoever attends
Note when it started and what changed just before, because that is the first thing any contractor will ask

Around Ludlow

As well as Ludlow itself, the surrounding villages and farms are covered, including Bromfield, Caynham, Ashford Carbonel, Clee Hill, Richard’s Castle, Stanton Lacy, Culmington, Burford. If you are somewhere smaller or somewhere between, get in touch anyway.