I've been interested in Brindley's drainage tunnels at Wet Earth Colliery for a few years now. There's a fair bit to see there however the good stuff was always inassessible, until on one trip a reasonable entrance to the main tunnels was found (now securely bricked up). So, userscott and I kitted up and headed underground.
I won't go into details and history now as have done a long winded article with more photos here.
There's two main tunnels that run roughly parallel from the bank of the Irwell to the colliery, a higher service tunnel and the lower tailrace. These were used to take the water from the waterwheel and what was pumped out the mine to the river.
Service Tunnel
Square Shaft junction which links the two tunnels together
Pump shaft, flooded tunnel on the right leads to the tailrace tunnel.
Passage connecting to the side overflow in the loading dock
Tailrace Tunnel
The other side of the link tunnel
The air isn't great in the square shaft junction, the meter reported low Oxygen. Also large blockage of Orchre, gravel and mud has unknown tonnes of water held up behind it. So not a place to be explored casually.
This only scratches the surface of whats down there, a multitude of tunnels exists upstream that are currently crawls through mud or completely full of water/ochre.
I won't go into details and history now as have done a long winded article with more photos here.
There's two main tunnels that run roughly parallel from the bank of the Irwell to the colliery, a higher service tunnel and the lower tailrace. These were used to take the water from the waterwheel and what was pumped out the mine to the river.
Service Tunnel
Square Shaft junction which links the two tunnels together
Pump shaft, flooded tunnel on the right leads to the tailrace tunnel.
Passage connecting to the side overflow in the loading dock
Tailrace Tunnel
The other side of the link tunnel
The air isn't great in the square shaft junction, the meter reported low Oxygen. Also large blockage of Orchre, gravel and mud has unknown tonnes of water held up behind it. So not a place to be explored casually.
This only scratches the surface of whats down there, a multitude of tunnels exists upstream that are currently crawls through mud or completely full of water/ochre.
