2023 - Good Morning,. Afternoon, Night

Morning all - nothing much good about it!
The downstairs loo turned into a paddling pool overnight. The only positive is that its at a lower level to the rest of the house so the water hadn't spread into the hallway.  There were no burst pipes or obvious signs of a leak so, lifted the carpet and bunged it in a trug and brought in the pond vacuum to suck up the water.
I could hear water sounds and eventually tracked it down to the cupboard under the washbasin and there, in the bottom back corner against the outside wall was a bubble fountain.

Thinking it was the water mains I rang the Water Board who were going to send someone out. 
Meanwhile, we could see that the water was bubbling up out of a piece of lead pipe - everything else is copper. 
We were able to put the pond vac pipe directly over the water and pump it out through the front door onto the drive. 
Then the water man came and he had a look and his best guess is that its rainwater coming off the hillside that has found its way into an old lead pipe (that should have been removed when the original plumbing was done). He turned the water off and the water meter  wasn't reading anything so it wasn't mains water - but FREE water.
He suggested chiselling round the pipe and trying to seal it off - sealant, cement or a lead pipe cap if we can get one to  the right size. 

Currently, there's a roll of bandage shoved in it and the dehumidifier is on, trying to dry the floor out.
Having read the Insurance policy,  by the time I've paid all the excesses, its not worth claiming. Hope we don't get more heavy rain before it can be capped off!

Does anyone have a use for a large pack of sodden toilet rolls?