Water worker's divine job

Mr Scrivens trains new workers in divination

A retiring customer adviser for a water company is passing on the ancient art of "divining" to his colleagues.

Dougie Scriven, 60, has been using divining rods to find underground leaks and old mains since he began working at Yorkshire Water 23 years ago.

Workers are now equipped with sophisticated equipment, such as sonar and echo sounders, to source water.

He works in Settle in the Yorkshire Dales.

To find a leak or main, he walks slowly along the ground, holding a metal rod or wire in each hand, until he feels "tension" or until the rods cross.

Human static electricity may be part of the explanation

It is a simple, some say mystical, method which can be conducted using just metal coathangers.

Mr Scrivens said he was taught divination by senior staff when he joined the company in the 1970s.

He said: "Call me old-fashioned, but I rely on my rods.

"I have used them for 24 years now and often or not they have come up trumps when everything else has failed.

"Like me, trainees have the use of a full range of new equipment, but I'm teaching them the old way."

Mr Scrivens said that today's radio detection machines often did not work near properties with modern plastic piping.

It is thought the success of divining may be because of human static electricity reacting with a magnetic field in the ground.