I’d been interested in having a butcher’s at this one for about 10 years or so, ever since JD posted up a photo of it on sub-urban.com
Earlier this year there had been some discussions about this place. The lockdown then came along, and with the drains in London beckoning I forgot about it.
Anyway, I had to visit a nearby village at the weekend to assist with a family matter and it occurred to me that I could finally get this one ticked off the list on the way there. I made a call to concreteJungle in the hope he might be free. As luck would have it, he happened to have a couple of hours to spare, so arrangements were put in place.
Fortunately, the weather was perfect. In fact, only hours earlier it was extremely hot. We still needed to keep alert however as there were some dark clouds gathering on the horizon.
The rather large CSO chamber suggests that this place can get quite lively in a very short space of time. Getting flushed away was not on today’s agenda.
The chamber is roughly 80ft long and the incoming sewer about 6ft in diameter. A pair of Longwood Stormguard motorised screens are suspended at the incoming end of the chamber at the top of the weir. It would appear from its condition that one of the screens does not work and probably hasn’t for some time. I always wonder how often these things are inspected and maintained once they are buried deep underground. Probably not often I suspect.
Earlier this year there had been some discussions about this place. The lockdown then came along, and with the drains in London beckoning I forgot about it.
Anyway, I had to visit a nearby village at the weekend to assist with a family matter and it occurred to me that I could finally get this one ticked off the list on the way there. I made a call to concreteJungle in the hope he might be free. As luck would have it, he happened to have a couple of hours to spare, so arrangements were put in place.
Fortunately, the weather was perfect. In fact, only hours earlier it was extremely hot. We still needed to keep alert however as there were some dark clouds gathering on the horizon.
The rather large CSO chamber suggests that this place can get quite lively in a very short space of time. Getting flushed away was not on today’s agenda.
The chamber is roughly 80ft long and the incoming sewer about 6ft in diameter. A pair of Longwood Stormguard motorised screens are suspended at the incoming end of the chamber at the top of the weir. It would appear from its condition that one of the screens does not work and probably hasn’t for some time. I always wonder how often these things are inspected and maintained once they are buried deep underground. Probably not often I suspect.
At the other end of the sewer channel a 3ft gap allows the outgoing water to pass. A short way beyond here, the flow bifurcates and feeds two parallel online storage tanks with a combined capacity of 5000 cubic metres to further reduce spills from this CSO.
Up in the overflow part of the chamber, the water can spill either side of the sewer and then flow down the wide steps before leaving the chamber via a 6ft high box culvert which leads off down to the river Bollin.
About three quarters of the way down the culvert, my wander was curtailed as the tunnel splits into two 3ft high sections which run parallel to each other before meeting the river.
The final photo, courtesy of concreteJungle, shows the grilled outfall into the river sporting the ubiquitous array of wet wipes and jamrags.
It was good to finally get this little puzzler crossed off the list. Thanks CJ for being free at short notice!
: haha
