Beck Valley Culvert
This is another of my early ones. There’s been plenty of reports from here over the years with much better pics, so I’ll keep it brief.
The Beck Valley Storm Water Culvert carries the Beck Burn for about two miles under Nottingham. Like everyone else I didn’t explore the stoopy bit at the northern end of the culvert so I don’t know where the culvert starts but it outfalls into the Trent below “a lane” east of the city. There’s a deep shaft in Victoria Park just over a mile from the Trent but the hatch is locked, or at least it was when I went.
Here’s an extract from http://undercitywebsite.blogspot.com/2009/03/nottingham-nottingham-background-and.html , which describes the original course of The Beck better than any other I’ve found.
And here’s an interesting little extract from Urban Caving’s report on here. Unfortunately, I don’t know where he got it from.
And here’s a map from http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/resources/maps.html
showing The Beck’s route in the 16th Century
showing The Beck’s route in the 16th Century
I went to the park first and squeezed through a tiny gap to get into the little stone hut surrounding the hatch at the top of the shaft. The gate had been locked and I thought this would bypass it. It did but the hatch was locked as well – buggar!
Back to the drawing board then. I’d only been to Nottingham once before so didn’t have a clue where the outfall was but the penultimate shot in @Dingle report (thankyou very much!) coupled with a bit of logic and google maps was all I needed.
It is very deep at the outfall, much deeper than my tripod was tall, and I remember brushing past plenty of decent sized fish in the area. It remained deep for some distance and as I did it at night there was not enough light entering from the outfall to get a decent pic from inside. As usual I walked as far as I could and got pics on the way back. The return trip would probably have taken about 2.5 hours without photos – it’s a bloody long way. Jeez it’s a pleasant and aesthetically pleasing stroll once you’re out of The Trent’s waters, though. I highly recommended it!
Can’t remember how far I stooped up here but it’d have been some way!
I saw this up one of the side pipes somewhere near where the last pic was taken. I think there was a small sewer below but I didn’t photograph it
From the bottom of the shaft looking up. Needed another light shining downwards, really
Top of steps looking down ‘em
Bottom of steps (which are in focus!)……lookin up ‘em
An corner, not many of these, so I took a photo!
One of me favourites
The only easy way in/out? Didn’t check the lid but have seen reports of others coming out of a lid somewhere. I don’t remember there being many along the way. It’s very grand though, a proper job!
I definitely missed a trick here. This is not far from the outfall. It stays annoyingly deep for some distance before it got well above my waist height
Well that’s it. Hope yer liked it. Pics aren’t great, I know, but you can’t polish a turd. Sharing’s caring an all that!
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