[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Clifford Pope

I had an inspection pit in our barn, installed by a previous owner in the 70s who maintained lorries here. It was hacked out of the rocks, about 4 feet down at that point, with block sides, a sloping rockface at the far (uphill) end, and an even rocky floor.
Water constantly seeped out of the rocks, turning into a stream in the autumn, but it had no clear exit - it simple seeped back into the ground at the other end.
There was an oily mess of old lorry parts buried in the silt, and the water rose to about 2 feet deep at most.
I never used it, foreseeing immediately that any parts or tools dropped into it would be lost for good. The wooden baulks laid across so that vehicles could access the rest of the barn rotted rapidly.
Inspection pits are dangerous places, as petrol fumes accumulate there, and there needs to be a fume extraction system.

I never used it, and recently concreted over the entire pit.

I suspect if you'd cleared the pit out and cleared the soakaway, it would have probably dried out and been usable. Shame you filled it with concrete as we'll never know now.