After completing the culvert Archerman the other year i thought i had done with the graves park beck (the stream that flows out of graves park ) however looking on google maps there seamed to be a possible couple of culverts further upstream . Tarky had sent me a PM which showed a number of man holes at the edge of Barbers field at the side of Fraser drive
Archerman had been a stoop and after visiting the outfall only
on Fraser road bang across from the Ale House pub i had thought better of it and dismissed the idea . Fast forward a couple of years and out and about in that area i decided to check on the infall
This did wet the appetite as looking down the grill of the 2nd pic i could see it was quite deep underground so maybee do able ? Well only one way to be sure is to have a look the infall area was grilled over and the only way in would be to lift lids and the site is overlooked from houses across the road so decided to come in from the outfall
about 2 foot tall to start ( this is what put me of before ) but almost straight away became 1500mm RCP had brought the trolley cart as i was expecting the first part to be a stoopfest
A small flow coming down nothing to be worried about i was more worried that there was a massive crack at the top of the the rcp pipes that ran for quite a distance ! after passing another manhole i resigned myself to boring stoopy RCP till the infall
Well this wasnt expected at all ! wasnt sure at first what to do as the slide is very steep and rises about 3,5 meters there were step irons on the left hand side but you couldnt walk up them after a minute thinking about it i decided to drag myself up climbing with my arms this meant having to abandon the drains cart and tripod
looking up to the manhole then after i had climbed up looking back downstream
A bit dodgy this as the channel was slippery moving on upstream
After a time i dropped down to all fours and began to crawl i had brought knee pads and my back thanked me for this lol
manhole then another slide this one a lot smaller
only around 1.5 meter rise this but no step irons ! So i did my best impression of a giant spider and pushed my feet and hands against the dry sides to get purchase up
past another manhole complete with flowspar then more RCP before a change
was coming towards the end thank god as despite the pics the vast majority of this drain is hard work 1500mm RCP
could see daylight at the end and a turn of to the right , the end
no way out there so back to check out the concrete chamber
was some natural light in here from the grill above enough to switch of the torches and get a breather , looking straight ahead
heavy plastic storm flap luckily still got that rope in my back pack
slight bend to the right 900mm diameter concrete pipe
then in to the chamber CSO
time to start making my way back out
