Points #22, #23 & #24 on your farm map.

The Slurry Pits #23 & #22.

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The Slurry Pits marked #23 the covered one and #22 the open were the primary filter tanks for all the cowshed effulent. #23 or A was the primary and held the most liquid and was not only covered but had a chestnut pailing fence around it to prevent accidents of people or animals falling in and drowning. #22 or B was an open pit, where the more solid wast was raked off of A and put into B to drain further. After a time the solid was removed and stacked in a pile denoted as C to be removed and spread on the field prior to ploughing.

The Horse and Slurry Cart.
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Once again the horse is real but the slurry cart is from memory. It was a purpose built round tank holding around 300 gallons of liquid slurry when full. It had a top filling lid, and the 4'' drain tap at the rear had a fan deflector to spread the liquid evenly over the ground.

The Slurry Pump.
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To fill the Slurry Cart above the manual Slurry Pump was used. This pump worked on a diaphram principle with flapper valves to direct the flow of the near solid liquid from the pit and into the tank. The pump was actuated by two men working the handle marked H in a up and down motion. P marks the two pivot points on the pump. The second is connected to the diaphram shaft. A very simple but very efficient tool at the time.

The Clinker Filter Bed.
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There was a drain pipe closer to the top of the covered primary pit which allowed the free flow liquid to enter a purpose built clinker filter bed, very similar to filter beds at Chalvey near Slough. Known in the old days as: "The Chalvey Treacle Mines."

As you can see once again the Astor's were very forward thinking and did not want to polute the river about a third of a mile away, with this their model farm.