Went back to the Carr Brook after I explored the upstream section last week. I now knew that this culvert was only accessible from the downstream section where it outflows into the Don at the Brightside Weir, so I entered where it ends and made my way upstream.
I decided that I would make the nearly 2 mile long journey up to the gate at Darnall as quickly as possible without taking any photos, and then on my way back I would take my time and get some pictures. Because of this I had to keep my light on a slightly lower setting than usual to make my battery last the whole time, the prospect of having to make the journey back in the pitch black was pretty terrifying, this means that some of the photos are a little dimmer than I would have liked, but I think they still are worth posting.
The following photos are as the water flows, from Darnall down to Meadowhall – check out some older reports from Parky or Esoteric Eric to get a better sense of the culvert in the right order.
Beginning at the furthest point up the culvert is the gate at Darnall, this is where I came to last week when I explored the upstream section.
This is a pretty consistent culvert, as the Nice ‘n Steady name would suggest, and from here to the outflow its a curved, winding tunnel that regularly goes from concrete precast sections to older brick and mortar sections. There are a few points where the tunnel splits into two channels, and in all of these cases I took whichever appeared to be the larger of the two.
This section is easy going, a bit of a stoop but you get used to it. There is a slight run-off coming from somewhere above but as with all the run-offs in this culvert it is strangely clean (some of the run-offs later on seem like they could even be chlorinated). Eventually you get to the first of the splits.
I went through the higher up of the two tunnels, its really dry in here as it seems to be an overflow precaution for when the water is really high.
After a while you get to a very stoopy section, maybe the worst of the whole run, made even more difficult as its full of some of the biggest spiderwebs I’ve ever seen and some really impressive stalactites which I was trying not to disturb.
Not too long after this section it opens up into a nice wide open box section with some of the only natural light you get in this tunnel apart from the end points. At this point is another split in the tunnel and some much smaller tributaries running out on either side, but I was more concerned with taking a quick break and trying to save my batteries which were running out a lot quicker than I would have liked. Sat here for a while with just the light coming in from the manhole cover.
Another manhole chamber further downstream. It’s hard to get a sense of how deep underground you are in these tunnels, the traffic passing by overhead sounds so loud that at times you feel like you are directly below the road, but seeing the manhole shaft open up above you like this you get some sense of scale.
More of the same; RCP, curved brick sections and the occasional split in the tunnels. A few leaks along this stretch and then another run-off from above. After that run-off from above the water gets super clear and stays that way till the end.
Around this point there is a chamber with a really impressive looking penstock valve, I didn’t get a picture as I was now in a bit of a race against my battery which was down to it’s last bar. But as I approached the next run-off, the biggest of the 3 in this tunnel, I knew I was only about 15 minutes from the outflow so started celebrating.
From that point its really easy going, the tunnel opens up to the widest it gets and you can comfortably walk upright and hear the Don flowing ahead of you. It really is a shame that you can’t access this tunnel from the upstream section.
Really pleased I managed to get this all done in one go, it is a really long stretch and because there is only one way in you have to do it twice. In total I was down underground for over 2 hours, so by the time I got out I was delighted to see the sun and laid out all my gear to dry out on top of the RCP outflow pipe. A really great explore, I would highly recommend it, but make sure to bring spare batteries as I was pushing it pretty close by the time I got out and getting stuck down there in the dark would not be fun.
I decided that I would make the nearly 2 mile long journey up to the gate at Darnall as quickly as possible without taking any photos, and then on my way back I would take my time and get some pictures. Because of this I had to keep my light on a slightly lower setting than usual to make my battery last the whole time, the prospect of having to make the journey back in the pitch black was pretty terrifying, this means that some of the photos are a little dimmer than I would have liked, but I think they still are worth posting.
The following photos are as the water flows, from Darnall down to Meadowhall – check out some older reports from Parky or Esoteric Eric to get a better sense of the culvert in the right order.
Beginning at the furthest point up the culvert is the gate at Darnall, this is where I came to last week when I explored the upstream section.
This is a pretty consistent culvert, as the Nice ‘n Steady name would suggest, and from here to the outflow its a curved, winding tunnel that regularly goes from concrete precast sections to older brick and mortar sections. There are a few points where the tunnel splits into two channels, and in all of these cases I took whichever appeared to be the larger of the two.
This section is easy going, a bit of a stoop but you get used to it. There is a slight run-off coming from somewhere above but as with all the run-offs in this culvert it is strangely clean (some of the run-offs later on seem like they could even be chlorinated). Eventually you get to the first of the splits.
I went through the higher up of the two tunnels, its really dry in here as it seems to be an overflow precaution for when the water is really high.
After a while you get to a very stoopy section, maybe the worst of the whole run, made even more difficult as its full of some of the biggest spiderwebs I’ve ever seen and some really impressive stalactites which I was trying not to disturb.
Not too long after this section it opens up into a nice wide open box section with some of the only natural light you get in this tunnel apart from the end points. At this point is another split in the tunnel and some much smaller tributaries running out on either side, but I was more concerned with taking a quick break and trying to save my batteries which were running out a lot quicker than I would have liked. Sat here for a while with just the light coming in from the manhole cover.
Another manhole chamber further downstream. It’s hard to get a sense of how deep underground you are in these tunnels, the traffic passing by overhead sounds so loud that at times you feel like you are directly below the road, but seeing the manhole shaft open up above you like this you get some sense of scale.
More of the same; RCP, curved brick sections and the occasional split in the tunnels. A few leaks along this stretch and then another run-off from above. After that run-off from above the water gets super clear and stays that way till the end.
Around this point there is a chamber with a really impressive looking penstock valve, I didn’t get a picture as I was now in a bit of a race against my battery which was down to it’s last bar. But as I approached the next run-off, the biggest of the 3 in this tunnel, I knew I was only about 15 minutes from the outflow so started celebrating.
From that point its really easy going, the tunnel opens up to the widest it gets and you can comfortably walk upright and hear the Don flowing ahead of you. It really is a shame that you can’t access this tunnel from the upstream section.
Really pleased I managed to get this all done in one go, it is a really long stretch and because there is only one way in you have to do it twice. In total I was down underground for over 2 hours, so by the time I got out I was delighted to see the sun and laid out all my gear to dry out on top of the RCP outflow pipe. A really great explore, I would highly recommend it, but make sure to bring spare batteries as I was pushing it pretty close by the time I got out and getting stuck down there in the dark would not be fun.
