Bell-End, Manchester.
Essentially 2 culverted watercourses and a combined sewer overflow located in Droylsden
This one had been on the to-do list a few years now
A 2.2m brick egg outfalls onto the edge of Bell Clough
After a comedy attempt at accessing the outfall and narrowly avoiding a right soaking I decided we'd go in search of manholes instead
Turned out to be a right bag of fail, as we beat about the bush looking for lids
Eventually I spotted the first manhole submerged within another stream after Nick almost getting stuck in some bog
One thing was certain this wasn't going to be our way in
We piss-balled about for another hour looking for lids, ripped by brambles and stung by nettles we gave it up as light began to fade
Our only option now was to head back to the outfall and traverse around the collapsing brick structure without ending up in the drink...
(It's pretty deep)
The surface water culvert heads upstream for around 50m through a distorted 2m egg as the earths pressure and boggy land above has taken it's toll over the years
As shown earlier ^^ the stream above ground cascades down the first manhole shaft, as the lid complete with frame has somehow managed to drop through and wash up around 100 yards downstream
The frame is bigger than the aperture for the manhole, so we figured Murphy had lobbed it down before installing the biscuit thus avoiding cementing it in place, in favour of the boozer one Friday afternoon
(There really is no other explanation)
And a close up of the manhole taken by Nick
Beyond the shaft, brick quickly turns to concrete and the watercourse now runs through a 4.5ft RCP
Those famous last words of "No more stooping" came back to haunt me as Nick pissed about grabbing a few shots..
We decided to plod on, muggins here went first with the meter and scraped the ceiling clear of spiders and cobwebs for the next 80m
Thankfully another manhole presented itself, so at least I could stretch the old spine whilst waiting for Nick to play catch up
The triangle shaped lid above was seized solid with probably 2 decades worth of rust, on the left a disused side pipe for what looked to be a surface water drain
Having shone my torch up, it appeared to have collapsed around 5ft further in
After spending a few minutes grabbing a couple of pics, we spent the next 10 mins debating whether to carry on
The only thing keeping me motivated was the sound of water tumbling somewhere upstream, so I volunteered to head up and see if it was worth the effort
60m of further stooping I arrived at a small junction
On the left, a small watercourse drops in from above, stifled by familiar debris that often results in natural backfill at these ill-maintained infalls..
I shouted down to Nick to head on up as it was worth a couple of pics for our efforts
We were now somewhere beneath Lumb Clough
Ahead, the pipe shrunk to just under 4ft, the prospect of carrying on appeared grim but I was curious despite having an idea where this was heading
The upstream section of RCP also serves as an overflow from a screened CSO that was installed circa 2008 a good 300m from this point
I left Nick at the junction as it shrinks again, and again to way below 4ft
100m later I declared bollocks to this!.. bent double, and pouring with sweat in a stinky shit pipe a tad over 3ft isn't my idea of fun on a school night
Time to GTFO and head out for some cans
Getting out was just as much a faff as Nick nearly had my eye out as he swung a scaff pole in order to aid our traverse across the lagoon of unknown depth beyond the outfall
Essentially 2 culverted watercourses and a combined sewer overflow located in Droylsden
This one had been on the to-do list a few years now
A 2.2m brick egg outfalls onto the edge of Bell Clough
After a comedy attempt at accessing the outfall and narrowly avoiding a right soaking I decided we'd go in search of manholes instead
Turned out to be a right bag of fail, as we beat about the bush looking for lids
Eventually I spotted the first manhole submerged within another stream after Nick almost getting stuck in some bog
One thing was certain this wasn't going to be our way in
We piss-balled about for another hour looking for lids, ripped by brambles and stung by nettles we gave it up as light began to fade
Our only option now was to head back to the outfall and traverse around the collapsing brick structure without ending up in the drink...
(It's pretty deep)
The surface water culvert heads upstream for around 50m through a distorted 2m egg as the earths pressure and boggy land above has taken it's toll over the years
As shown earlier ^^ the stream above ground cascades down the first manhole shaft, as the lid complete with frame has somehow managed to drop through and wash up around 100 yards downstream
The frame is bigger than the aperture for the manhole, so we figured Murphy had lobbed it down before installing the biscuit thus avoiding cementing it in place, in favour of the boozer one Friday afternoon
(There really is no other explanation)
And a close up of the manhole taken by Nick
Beyond the shaft, brick quickly turns to concrete and the watercourse now runs through a 4.5ft RCP
Those famous last words of "No more stooping" came back to haunt me as Nick pissed about grabbing a few shots..
We decided to plod on, muggins here went first with the meter and scraped the ceiling clear of spiders and cobwebs for the next 80m
Thankfully another manhole presented itself, so at least I could stretch the old spine whilst waiting for Nick to play catch up
The triangle shaped lid above was seized solid with probably 2 decades worth of rust, on the left a disused side pipe for what looked to be a surface water drain
Having shone my torch up, it appeared to have collapsed around 5ft further in
After spending a few minutes grabbing a couple of pics, we spent the next 10 mins debating whether to carry on
The only thing keeping me motivated was the sound of water tumbling somewhere upstream, so I volunteered to head up and see if it was worth the effort
60m of further stooping I arrived at a small junction
On the left, a small watercourse drops in from above, stifled by familiar debris that often results in natural backfill at these ill-maintained infalls..
I shouted down to Nick to head on up as it was worth a couple of pics for our efforts
We were now somewhere beneath Lumb Clough
Ahead, the pipe shrunk to just under 4ft, the prospect of carrying on appeared grim but I was curious despite having an idea where this was heading
The upstream section of RCP also serves as an overflow from a screened CSO that was installed circa 2008 a good 300m from this point
I left Nick at the junction as it shrinks again, and again to way below 4ft
100m later I declared bollocks to this!.. bent double, and pouring with sweat in a stinky shit pipe a tad over 3ft isn't my idea of fun on a school night
Time to GTFO and head out for some cans
Getting out was just as much a faff as Nick nearly had my eye out as he swung a scaff pole in order to aid our traverse across the lagoon of unknown depth beyond the outfall
