History
Beer Belly is the name given to a culverted section of the Hempshaw Brook in Stockport. The following diagram (taken from http://www.pittdixon.go-plus.net/stockport-nav/stockport-nav.htm) gives a good impression of the novel layout of this short culvert.
As you can see in the diagram, the vertical section on the right creates a really nice waterfall. This culvert was designed to fill a small reservoir called Stockport Navigation. Commissioned by local businessman, Samuel Oldknow (1756 - 1828), water was channelled into the reservoir in order to power the water wheels for three mills - named Lower, Middle and Upper Carr.
Here's a picture of Oldknow - something tells me he probably didn't get his hands dirty building the culvert on his own...
He probably never crawled on his hands an knees in waders down his culvert to take pictures of it either, but then it's unlikely that it featured such impressive mineral deposits during his own lifetime... It should, however, be noted that Oldknow is considered to have been a good chap who treated his workers well (see http://www.marple-uk.com/Oldknow1.htm for more of a life history)
The Visit
Visited in the company of @Alley @FreshFingers and a non-member (I think) who had kindly offered to show me a couple of Stockport things while I was passing thought the area one weekend. The photos are a bit blurry as this place was wet, to say the least. Although this culvert is short it was well worth the visit. Progressing through the culvert itself was fairly hard going - as well as the high water level and silty floor the tunnel itself was shallow in parts, which required a steady crawl through high water. The first bit was brick - I somehow forgot to get a photo of the outflow entrance, but here's a couple of blurtastic pics from just inside...
This led us inside the ribcage of some wild beast...
There was also some nicely coloured sandstone in the section before the main event...
Approaching the falls...
Waterfall! Woo!
It took loads of shots here (and much lens wiping with a wet sock) to get a pic that was even halfway presentable. The amount of spray was crazy, and getting the tripod to stay still was almost impossible. The others were trying to communicate something to me here, but I couldn't hear a word due to the roaring. After getting the shots we turned and made our way out the way we came in.
And before we left the brook there was just enough time to free some debris that had been clogging up the culvert further upstream.
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Looks good, mate, wish i'd done it when I was there. Love the sandy colours and that 'ribcage' of mineral deposits.
