Clay soil slope - drainage

karen.l.youngAb3b46ML

We have quite a steep slope around 23ft by 16ft and gradient of probably 45. It is full of heavy clay soil. Water seems to go toward the right hand side at the bottom of the slope, in both mine and the back of our neighbours garden. 

Where the water goes to is currently grass and it is soggy. we are going to be replacing the grass with bark as our children climbing frame is here.

Before we do this and while the turf is up, is there something you would suggest we could do in this area to help the water drain away such as digging a ditch and filling with rubble or gravel. We also have PVC pipe and I wondered if I could perforate these and make us of them somehow.

at the moment the sloped area is bare and de weeded so we have the possibility of digging down trenches.

thinking of a short term solution we can do ourselves here before we can get some professional drainage installed. 

Thanks. 

Fairygirl

You can certainly do as you're describing - ie making a soakaway @karen.l.youngAb3b46ML , but it'll need to be quite substantial, and any excess water will need to be able to filter away eventually. It depends on the site.
That might be adequate for what you want, but you'd need it to be stable enough if there's going to be anyone using the area too.