LittleMike
April 8th, 2009, 19:40
Another morning on the porcelain blower to Ruth. That bird loves her one-cup action, and unfortunately once again my body seemed more than willing to provide. The blight seems to be settling in to it's new home up north, either that or reheating the pizza that had been festering in my hot car for two days was a bad idea. Either way these days it seems to all be part of the big game. No pain, no drain.
*note: Lots of photos stolen from Yaz (http://onetwotwofour.blogspot.com/) as we decided to split the photography between us, which worked quite well and saved a lot of time. Also a big thank-you to JD for doing the research for Green Giant :)
The Solicitor - Preston
On arrival in Preston the weather was looking slightly sketchy, so we decided to warm up with something reasonably chilled out. After looking on the good ol' Google Earth I wasn't really expecting anything too big, so pleasantly surprised we were when we found ourselves in a nice 7-8ft tunnel. The Solicitor, originally explored by j3bu and FSB last year, is like a cross between Processor and Redbarn. For most of it's length it follows the same round brick construction, but over time it has deformed to create some truly bizarre shapes. Also of note are the impressive mineral formations, whilst not quite as mind-bogglingly mind boggling as the cave section of Processor, it's always nice to see.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3539/3402642288_991faef373.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/little-mike/3402642288)
Deform
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3643/3402642036_fd59208e33.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/little-mike/3402642036)
Arch
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/1575/sol1y.jpg
Photo by Yaz
http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/2432/sol2n.jpg
Photo by Yaz
Green Giant - Preston
With the weather looking slightly more promising we made our way down to the Ribble to check out something new. Following a lead that JD researched, we headed to a big outfall to assess the situation. Luckily, with much careful planning, we arrived just as the Ribble was bottoming out, either that or I had completely forgotten that the Ribble is extremely tidal and we got ridiculously lucky...In any case, we discovered that with enough manpower we could move the top half of the tidal flap enough to squeeze somebody through, and with a bit of effort we were all inside. Unfortunately our trip concluded after 10m at a secondary tidal flap, this time the top half being jammed completely shut. It was at this point Yaz speculated that further exploration may be possible by squeezing through the lower half of the flap. The high tide mark 15ft above our heads begged to differ. There's brave, stupid and suicidal, and this was certainly a case of the latter, time to find another way in.
Frainey retired to a 'better offer' by this point, so me and Yaz did what we really should have done 2 hours previous and set about searching for lids where at a spot that JD had indicated. Amazingly we found what we were looking at pretty much the first attempt, if only all drains gave up the goods this easily! We climbed down the unnervingly disintegrated rungs into a nice 7ft brick tunnel. Excellent.
I wish we could tell you what exactly this drain is, but to be honest, we just don't know. Given that I was expecting a full on sewer, we were rather baffled to not only find crystal clear flowing through, but an awful lot of debris strewn across the floor. It's most definitely not a culvert, so where exactly the debris comes from is still a bit of a mystery. The cleanliness was short lived, as soon as we stepped down into the silt it stirred up all manner of floatables that had happily been resting for god knows how long. Peas and sweetcorn seemed to be the order of the day so we swiftly made our way upstream to the main feature of the drain, a square room/quad junction. Here the drain split into two 5ft brick pipes in the upstream direction, and the 7ft concrete overflow pipe branched off towards the river.
http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/1922/00542.jpg
Overflow (left) + Downstream main tunnel (right). Photo by Yaz
http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/6386/00645.jpg
Upstream branches. Photo by Yaz
We decided to check the overflow pipe first, which turned out to be quite uneventful. Presumably it used to be brick for it's entire length, but it has since been replaced with concrete for all but the last 20m. It did however confirm that the waist heigh tide mark in the main chamber is in fact from the river back-flooding all the way up the overflow and into the main tunnel.
http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/5683/00440.jpg
Overflow tunnel. Photo by Yaz
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3549/3402640354_52e9679e03.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/little-mike/3402640354)
Flaptastic, back at the river
Back in the main chamber we opted to take the 5ft pipe that was making some noise. A 500m stoop led us to a point where the tunnel continues as a sewer that has been recently intercepted. This certainly isn't the original setup and leads me to believe that perhaps the main tunnel is the original low level interceptor that has since been replaced with a newer one further away from the river.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3646/3402639892_2b6fcd4467.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/little-mike/3402639892)
Intercepted
Finally, we decided to push further downstream in the main tunnel to see if anything happened. We ventured about 800m-1km with no significant features, although before we turned round we could hear a roaring noise somewhere far in the distance. The river tide mark was already above our heads after about 200m past our manhole point so having no clue what the tides were doing we decided it would be wise to leave the rest for another day.
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/5582/00824f.jpg
Main tunnel. Photo by Yaz
http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/2024/greengiantcustom.jpg
Warmden Grotto - Accrington
Well it's been about 9 months since I first visited here and I remember coming out of it raving. Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures at the time and I couldn't really remember what all the fuss was about. Me and Yaz decided to go have a look, now I remember!
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3586/3402641124_f307b4390c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/little-mike/3402641124/)
9ft Round Stone Pipes
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3542/3401836773_9639318e59_o.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/little-mike/3401836773/)
Original Riverbed
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3644/3402641490_63a9dfa8e1_o.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/little-mike/3402641490/)
Waterfall with triple arched ceiling
The Cavern - Accrington
Whilst all towns in the UK have sewer overflows lining the riverbanks at some point or another, Accrington has yet again decided to be different by having just one absolutely giant one. Naturally, having a simple overflow on a 11ft trunk would be somewhat disastrous for the river, so to help combat pollution every time it drizzles, they've carved out a long tunnel along the line of the sewer to act as an in-line storage tank. Champion.
http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o260/yaz37/001-58.jpg
Photo by Yaz
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3642/3401836287_b0ac4be87b_o.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/little-mike/3401836287/)
The cavern
*note: Lots of photos stolen from Yaz (http://onetwotwofour.blogspot.com/) as we decided to split the photography between us, which worked quite well and saved a lot of time. Also a big thank-you to JD for doing the research for Green Giant :)
The Solicitor - Preston
On arrival in Preston the weather was looking slightly sketchy, so we decided to warm up with something reasonably chilled out. After looking on the good ol' Google Earth I wasn't really expecting anything too big, so pleasantly surprised we were when we found ourselves in a nice 7-8ft tunnel. The Solicitor, originally explored by j3bu and FSB last year, is like a cross between Processor and Redbarn. For most of it's length it follows the same round brick construction, but over time it has deformed to create some truly bizarre shapes. Also of note are the impressive mineral formations, whilst not quite as mind-bogglingly mind boggling as the cave section of Processor, it's always nice to see.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3539/3402642288_991faef373.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/little-mike/3402642288)
Deform
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3643/3402642036_fd59208e33.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/little-mike/3402642036)
Arch
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/1575/sol1y.jpg
Photo by Yaz
http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/2432/sol2n.jpg
Photo by Yaz
Green Giant - Preston
With the weather looking slightly more promising we made our way down to the Ribble to check out something new. Following a lead that JD researched, we headed to a big outfall to assess the situation. Luckily, with much careful planning, we arrived just as the Ribble was bottoming out, either that or I had completely forgotten that the Ribble is extremely tidal and we got ridiculously lucky...In any case, we discovered that with enough manpower we could move the top half of the tidal flap enough to squeeze somebody through, and with a bit of effort we were all inside. Unfortunately our trip concluded after 10m at a secondary tidal flap, this time the top half being jammed completely shut. It was at this point Yaz speculated that further exploration may be possible by squeezing through the lower half of the flap. The high tide mark 15ft above our heads begged to differ. There's brave, stupid and suicidal, and this was certainly a case of the latter, time to find another way in.
Frainey retired to a 'better offer' by this point, so me and Yaz did what we really should have done 2 hours previous and set about searching for lids where at a spot that JD had indicated. Amazingly we found what we were looking at pretty much the first attempt, if only all drains gave up the goods this easily! We climbed down the unnervingly disintegrated rungs into a nice 7ft brick tunnel. Excellent.
I wish we could tell you what exactly this drain is, but to be honest, we just don't know. Given that I was expecting a full on sewer, we were rather baffled to not only find crystal clear flowing through, but an awful lot of debris strewn across the floor. It's most definitely not a culvert, so where exactly the debris comes from is still a bit of a mystery. The cleanliness was short lived, as soon as we stepped down into the silt it stirred up all manner of floatables that had happily been resting for god knows how long. Peas and sweetcorn seemed to be the order of the day so we swiftly made our way upstream to the main feature of the drain, a square room/quad junction. Here the drain split into two 5ft brick pipes in the upstream direction, and the 7ft concrete overflow pipe branched off towards the river.
http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/1922/00542.jpg
Overflow (left) + Downstream main tunnel (right). Photo by Yaz
http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/6386/00645.jpg
Upstream branches. Photo by Yaz
We decided to check the overflow pipe first, which turned out to be quite uneventful. Presumably it used to be brick for it's entire length, but it has since been replaced with concrete for all but the last 20m. It did however confirm that the waist heigh tide mark in the main chamber is in fact from the river back-flooding all the way up the overflow and into the main tunnel.
http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/5683/00440.jpg
Overflow tunnel. Photo by Yaz
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3549/3402640354_52e9679e03.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/little-mike/3402640354)
Flaptastic, back at the river
Back in the main chamber we opted to take the 5ft pipe that was making some noise. A 500m stoop led us to a point where the tunnel continues as a sewer that has been recently intercepted. This certainly isn't the original setup and leads me to believe that perhaps the main tunnel is the original low level interceptor that has since been replaced with a newer one further away from the river.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3646/3402639892_2b6fcd4467.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/little-mike/3402639892)
Intercepted
Finally, we decided to push further downstream in the main tunnel to see if anything happened. We ventured about 800m-1km with no significant features, although before we turned round we could hear a roaring noise somewhere far in the distance. The river tide mark was already above our heads after about 200m past our manhole point so having no clue what the tides were doing we decided it would be wise to leave the rest for another day.
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/5582/00824f.jpg
Main tunnel. Photo by Yaz
http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/2024/greengiantcustom.jpg
Warmden Grotto - Accrington
Well it's been about 9 months since I first visited here and I remember coming out of it raving. Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures at the time and I couldn't really remember what all the fuss was about. Me and Yaz decided to go have a look, now I remember!
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3586/3402641124_f307b4390c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/little-mike/3402641124/)
9ft Round Stone Pipes
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3542/3401836773_9639318e59_o.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/little-mike/3401836773/)
Original Riverbed
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3644/3402641490_63a9dfa8e1_o.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/little-mike/3402641490/)
Waterfall with triple arched ceiling
The Cavern - Accrington
Whilst all towns in the UK have sewer overflows lining the riverbanks at some point or another, Accrington has yet again decided to be different by having just one absolutely giant one. Naturally, having a simple overflow on a 11ft trunk would be somewhat disastrous for the river, so to help combat pollution every time it drizzles, they've carved out a long tunnel along the line of the sewer to act as an in-line storage tank. Champion.
http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o260/yaz37/001-58.jpg
Photo by Yaz
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3642/3401836287_b0ac4be87b_o.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/little-mike/3401836287/)
The cavern