No external stop tap wtf ?

[Elasticatedwaist]

Moved into a 1930s house a couple of months ago. Old kitchen ripped out but now can’t fit the new one because the INTERNAL stop cock is leaking. The plumber can’t clamp or freeze it because it’s lead. To do anything he needs the water off via the EXTERNAL stop cock. Had the water board out and they say there isn’t one for our property. He says we will have to dig up in the garden and try to find the pipe , cap it and have a new external stop tap.
dh started digging last night but the bit he needs to locate really could be anywhere and the garden is the only thing we did have sorted and nice ffs.
apparently the water board can’t even turn our water off by turning the whole street off because they don’t have plans that show where we are connected. Only 4 of the houses are connected to the main.

surely this can’t be right ? Super stressed !

It definitly not right but I'm not sure you fdo anythnig against who ever bulid the house now!

I just had a quick look and you can hire underground pipe locators (that's the thing to google!) for about £60 - £70 per day. I know it's more expense but it's got to be better than digging up the garden at random!

I'd expect the water board to have them, but I bet they'll take weeks to come out and I'm not sure if they'd charge?

Do you have a water meter? You can cut the water supply off there. It's not perfectly water tight but should be more than enough for the plumber to fit a new internal stopcock.
Or just fit a second downstream internal stopcock? If it's leaking through the valve rather than into the room.
Plumber needs the water off, doesn't matter how/where.

my mums external stop and water meter is in neighbours back garden

We had this. We were the only house in the street still connected to the old pipes. Everyone had a stopcock at the front. Ours was round the corner at the entrance to a driveway that used to be an alleyway behind the houses. The water board were about to dig up the path thinking it had been tarmacced over when an elderly neighbour came over and told us. If you have or used to have an alleyway behind your house, it's worth looking there