Feces!

[Cyclefrance]

That's not nice. They just don't make 'em like they used to! In my last place we had an old Victorian brick-built septic tank. A massive affair consisting of two chambers, totalling about 25 feet long by 10 feet wide. According to some papers that were included with the title deeds to the house, a series of pipes led from it with herring-bone branches spreading from the main pipes to take and distribute the 'treated' liquid waste under adjoining fields.A sludge pump-out was only required every 2 - 3 years - an amazing piece of Victorian engineering, very flexible. We never had any problems with our one. Our neighbours had a blockage one year with theirs as a result of tree roots invading the pipework, but that was all. Sorry to hear you've had such bad luck with yours. Hope the snake does the job.