"Roland Perry" wrote

Out of interest, before the transfer, did detached houses own (in a
property sense) the pipe under the pavement and road connecting to the
public sewer - because they were responsible for it. I don't remember them
being "shown in red" on my deeds.

That might depend on who owns the road. The highway authority of an adopted
highway owns the surface, 'together with the materials and scrapings of it'
(Highways Act 1980 s263) and may or may not own the subsoil, which may
belong to the owner of the house, or to the developer who built the house.
The owner of the house owned the pipe, and had an easement allowing him to
keep it there, if he did not own the subsoil of the road. Easements are
often not referred to in registers of title, merely being referred to as
'overriding interests'.

Peter

Peter