Local History

When you live in Manchester and immerse yourself in that city's rich industrial history, it's easy to overlook the rich history of the town where you grew up.

From the 1790s onwards, copper production was tha shiznit in Holywell, Flintshire. Thomas Williams developed Greenfield valley to reach this end.

Holywell copper was used to line the hull of Nelson's HMS Victory. The copper produced here was also used to make shackles on slave ships. Something, unfortunately, I'm sure a large number of Holywell's citizens would be proud of today.

Before Boulton and Watt's steam engine became the catalyst for industrial explosion in the 19th century, running water was the necessary tool used to power industry. Greenfield valley has a high number of hidden, tiny culverts which are truly ancient in terms of industry. These stone-built passageways are tiny and have a low flow of crystal clear water.

There's a lot more here that I'm yet to explore here, but this is the starting point.

Supercharged

When you move house, sometimes you have to go into the drains that are 100 yards from your new place.

Bunkons

Warrington. Drain. Winch. Agour.

Peace.

Brapford

I've been lazy in updating.

Here are a few pictures from Yorkshire.

With nckt.

Brap.

Medlock Tomfoolery

Met up with my boys Gone and nckt today.

After we failed to reach one drain because it had been raining all night and Gone got a wader-breach on his way in, myself and nckt headed down to YouMissed and HFLB for some epic drain lolery.

Walked home with nckt fully wadered-up through the city centre. You love it.

Optimus Prime

Optimus Prime is probably the largest culvert in Manchester.

It leads the River Irk beneath Victoria railway station before it reaches the Irwell near the MEN Arena.

Visited with nckt and ConcreteJungle, surprisingly none of us had visited this well-known Manchester drain before.











I'm so poor at the moment I can't afford batteries. The ones in my camera died before I could take any decent shots of this drain's main feature - a wooden, Victorian cattle bridge that has been culverted over. FML!

In My Sights

"In My Sights" is a giant sewage storage tank in Greater Manchester.

When I say "giant" I mean GIANT. This place is huge.

Visited with nckt and ConcreteJungle. CJ made his first visit a few weeks back. A lot of safety rails saving workers from an 80ft drop into raw sewage had been removed by pikeys before he visited, but when we opened the same manhole on our joint visit we were in for a surprise.

The lid lifted, flies, heat, steam and the horrible stench all billowed out.

"In you go" suggests ConcreteJungle.

nckt and myself look at each other.

"Err... how?"

The pikeys who had removed the safety rails had been back and taken the ladder that had been bolted to the wall. There was now a 20ft gap between the manhole and the platform we wanted to get to. Luckily, the place was vast enough to have about 5 or 6 other options.

Many grated off, some locked, we eventually got lucky and found a ladder beneath one manhole. Only this ladder was roughly 80ft in height and completely exposed to the drop.

Leaning back on this ladder to avoid the debris and raw human waste caught on the rungs was terrifying and disgusting in equal measure.

Wading through raw sewage, slipping on the sloped concrete floor and getting used to a smell that could only be described as "Ungodly" was all part of the fun.

Unfortunately my pictures only really showed the filth and not the scale of the place. Check out ConcreteJungle's pics (http://substormflow.blogspot.com/2010/06/in-my-sights.html) to truly understand the scale of this epic shit tank.

The Works

The Works is a massive CSO pipe in the Collyhurst ghetto.

Visited with Morse.

Vin Diesel

Visited with Eotech.

Named after the stench of diesel that fills the air. Easily one of the dirtiest, most polluted drains I've ever been in.

Here's a video of it...

Hyde Falls

This deep culvert was discovered by Dan Helsing who first walked its length from the infall to the falls with nckt where they couldn't continue without rope.

The following night I tagged along with them and we headed up through the outfall.

It starts as a concrete box with a plughole draining into it.

This way to my secret lair...

Dan Helsing keeps a look out...

From here it gets rocky and bastardly treacherous. Proceed with caution. Seriously.

It then opens up into the chamber that Dan and nckt reached the night before. WOW. The chamber is vast and echoes the sound of the water hammering down onto the rocks below both falls. I'm sure I have tinnitus from that place.

Gripper Pt.2

After planned visits to big drains were rained off, Dan Helsing, nckt and myself spent most of the afternoon looking for new drains in Manchester.

Stood in the rain, getting piss-wet through lifting manholes on scrubland. Not glamourous, and not successful.

We had new torches and were getting desperate. Off to an old favourite then!

Sidedraft Induction

It was about 10pm one night this week when I was talking to Gone and on a whim we decided to re-visit this well known Manchester drain.

Parking and wadering-up we walked through the infall. The flow was lower than our last visit and Gone had a pair of waders by now, so I wasn't piggy-backing him through the deeper bits. He rode me like that fox on the dog in The Labyrinth.

After walking down this pill-shaped tunnel for a while it comes to a taller, wider chamber with a side pipe. A quick excursion up this pipe lead to the motherload.

A massive overflow chamber with two floors of concrete and a rapid river of poop.

One of Gone's...

Heading back to the clean(er) water of the brook we headed downstream to the outfall. Proceed with caution from here. It's silty and full of potholes. We got back above ground and walked back to the car in our waders. Weird looks FTW.