Background. The River Blakewater rises on the moors above Blackburn as the Knuzden Brook before becoming the Blakewater and giving its name to the town.
It flows approximately parallel to the Leeds and Liverpool canal, the larger blue ‘river’ running across the bottom right on the map below.
There are several culverted sections, red lines on the map, with the longest running under the town centre.
This was first covered over during the industrial revolution but much of it was redone in the 1960s then again in 2014 so it’s now mostly concrete.
The river is joined by a few streams along the way, all in culverts, and eventually combines with the River Darwen on the western outskirts of town.
Explore. As usual the aim was simply to walk down the river and explore any holes that were larger than about 4 ft - no drain is worth backache.
The culvert under the town centre has been done several times before - links to previous reports given below.
This report is the product of two visits, the first last year when I got sidetracked by a long drain, the orange line on the map.
I’ve no idea where this drain actually goes other than northwards and uphill so the line is drawn with an arbitrary endpoint.
The second more recent visit was to do the rest.
Starting where the Knudzden brook becomes the Blakewater...
…we soon end up in a long open channel which runs past Imperial Mill, a former cotton mill - phone shot of this over the culvert wall.
The Blakewater once had many cotton mills along its banks and several of the buildings still remain in use for other things.
The next underground bit heads north crossing under the railway, mostly as a fairly lofty brick arch with a couple of breaks and a lot of rocks and rubbish.
On through another open section there’s the yellow grate of a CSO on the left - someone managed to drive down here in 2015 (and survived).
Just inside the entrance to the next short section is a junction where Little Harwood Brook joins from the north - tunnel on the left in the second picture below.
This brook runs through a nice stone tunnel for a while, well above head height, before shrinking down to 4 ft.
Back on the river it meanders around for while.
I took cover under this bridge during a sudden hailstorm.
On the other side is what looks like the remains of a sluice mechanism.
There are quite a few fragments of ironwork to do with water control for mills along the route.
And on - there are manholes in the ground along here and in some other stretches suggesting a sewer follows the route of the river, common in rivers through towns.
Under a former mill, now a scrapyard, with two arches.
The drain mentioned above, which also contains a sewer, is just before this.
A bit further on is another CSO. There’s a report on this one (I think) here, https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/partners-in-grime-blackburn-june-15.97605/.
A view back upriver showing more sluices, with another former cotton mill on the right.
continued
It flows approximately parallel to the Leeds and Liverpool canal, the larger blue ‘river’ running across the bottom right on the map below.
There are several culverted sections, red lines on the map, with the longest running under the town centre.
This was first covered over during the industrial revolution but much of it was redone in the 1960s then again in 2014 so it’s now mostly concrete.
The river is joined by a few streams along the way, all in culverts, and eventually combines with the River Darwen on the western outskirts of town.
Explore. As usual the aim was simply to walk down the river and explore any holes that were larger than about 4 ft - no drain is worth backache.
The culvert under the town centre has been done several times before - links to previous reports given below.
This report is the product of two visits, the first last year when I got sidetracked by a long drain, the orange line on the map.
I’ve no idea where this drain actually goes other than northwards and uphill so the line is drawn with an arbitrary endpoint.
The second more recent visit was to do the rest.
Starting where the Knudzden brook becomes the Blakewater...
…we soon end up in a long open channel which runs past Imperial Mill, a former cotton mill - phone shot of this over the culvert wall.
The Blakewater once had many cotton mills along its banks and several of the buildings still remain in use for other things.
The next underground bit heads north crossing under the railway, mostly as a fairly lofty brick arch with a couple of breaks and a lot of rocks and rubbish.
On through another open section there’s the yellow grate of a CSO on the left - someone managed to drive down here in 2015 (and survived).
Just inside the entrance to the next short section is a junction where Little Harwood Brook joins from the north - tunnel on the left in the second picture below.
This brook runs through a nice stone tunnel for a while, well above head height, before shrinking down to 4 ft.
Back on the river it meanders around for while.
I took cover under this bridge during a sudden hailstorm.
On the other side is what looks like the remains of a sluice mechanism.
There are quite a few fragments of ironwork to do with water control for mills along the route.
And on - there are manholes in the ground along here and in some other stretches suggesting a sewer follows the route of the river, common in rivers through towns.
Under a former mill, now a scrapyard, with two arches.
The drain mentioned above, which also contains a sewer, is just before this.
A bit further on is another CSO. There’s a report on this one (I think) here, https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/partners-in-grime-blackburn-june-15.97605/.
A view back upriver showing more sluices, with another former cotton mill on the right.
continued
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