A walk along the landward side of the Manchester Ship Canal from Eastham (Queen Elizabeth) Dock to Manisty Mount.
This used to be a wooded marshy area and is now mostly post-industrial wilderness, with broken brick underfoot.
The main aim was to check out a couple of small structures at the southern (Mount Manisty) end which looked like they may be derelict, with a few other minor things along the way.
Pictures are a mixture of camera and phone.
Starting from the quay just south of Eastham Docks, it seems to be a tradition to record the names of ships who tie up here along with the names and ranks of the crew.
Two small structures in the undergrowth.
An empty pumphouse - there’s another one shown on old maps further along but only the foundations remain.
Some sort of bunker, may be WW2 - nothing inside except a wall with roosting butterflies.
Next we come to the outfall from the GM/Vauxhall water treatment plant which takes effluent from the enormous car factory over the road.
The first 50m or so of this has been reported before, and nothing has changed except for the addition of a couple of grills.
https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/vauxhall-treatment-plant-drain-ellesmere-port-april-11.63095/
https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/vauxhall-trade-effluent-drain-ellesmere-port-october-11.65358/
First up is an octagonal chamber. Looking back towards the outfall…
...and on down to a grill…
…ending up in an open chamber.
Beyond this is a gully with quite deep water - a natural drainage feature shown on old maps.
The drain then heads under the road.
Looking back towards the entrance from a small chamber…
Facing forwards again there are two pipes.
The right hand one ends in a slightly smelly chamber with something about 4ft diameter heading off to the left - too small to bother with.
The left hand one carries for a bit, this picture looking back…
…to another small chamber with steps.
The water in front of the steps was too deep for wellies at this point and my back was beginning to complain so I called it a day.
In the distance there’s what looked like another set of steps - by that stage you would be somewhere under the car plant.
Next up is another outfall, this time for the Rivacre River which is piped through the canal bank for about 50m with a grill on the landside entrance.
Not really explorable unless you want to heave up one of the heavy flaps.
The hill on the other side of the canal on the left of the top photo is Mount Manisty, made from the earth excavated when the canal was being built - it’s now a complete jungle with a lot of wildlife.
Beside the beginning of the Rivacre culvert is the entrance to the Hooton syphon, which was built to channel waste water under the canal.
There are apparently several of these syphons (or siphons - cast iron pipes buried under the canal) the biggest being for the Gowy River, further south.
The syphon emerges on the other side of the canal next to Mount Manisty and flows out into the Mersey - pictures taken on a previous walk along the outer bank of the canal.
Further along is another outfall - I’m guessing this was for the Bridgwater paper mill which was nearby. The water jets were presumably to wash bits of rag etc. off the filter drum.
There are two reports on here for the paper plant before it was demolished in around 2010
https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/bridgewater-paper-mill-may-10.50838/
https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/bridgewater-paper-mill-march-may-2010.52009/
Now all that’s left is a large area of waste ground used to store small glittery mountains of waste glass (cullet) for the Recresso recycling plant at the southern end.
This used to be a wooded marshy area and is now mostly post-industrial wilderness, with broken brick underfoot.
The main aim was to check out a couple of small structures at the southern (Mount Manisty) end which looked like they may be derelict, with a few other minor things along the way.
Pictures are a mixture of camera and phone.
Starting from the quay just south of Eastham Docks, it seems to be a tradition to record the names of ships who tie up here along with the names and ranks of the crew.
Two small structures in the undergrowth.
An empty pumphouse - there’s another one shown on old maps further along but only the foundations remain.
Some sort of bunker, may be WW2 - nothing inside except a wall with roosting butterflies.
Next we come to the outfall from the GM/Vauxhall water treatment plant which takes effluent from the enormous car factory over the road.
The first 50m or so of this has been reported before, and nothing has changed except for the addition of a couple of grills.
https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/vauxhall-treatment-plant-drain-ellesmere-port-april-11.63095/
https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/vauxhall-trade-effluent-drain-ellesmere-port-october-11.65358/
First up is an octagonal chamber. Looking back towards the outfall…
...and on down to a grill…
…ending up in an open chamber.
Beyond this is a gully with quite deep water - a natural drainage feature shown on old maps.
The drain then heads under the road.
Looking back towards the entrance from a small chamber…
Facing forwards again there are two pipes.
The right hand one ends in a slightly smelly chamber with something about 4ft diameter heading off to the left - too small to bother with.
The left hand one carries for a bit, this picture looking back…
…to another small chamber with steps.
The water in front of the steps was too deep for wellies at this point and my back was beginning to complain so I called it a day.
In the distance there’s what looked like another set of steps - by that stage you would be somewhere under the car plant.
Next up is another outfall, this time for the Rivacre River which is piped through the canal bank for about 50m with a grill on the landside entrance.
Not really explorable unless you want to heave up one of the heavy flaps.
The hill on the other side of the canal on the left of the top photo is Mount Manisty, made from the earth excavated when the canal was being built - it’s now a complete jungle with a lot of wildlife.
Beside the beginning of the Rivacre culvert is the entrance to the Hooton syphon, which was built to channel waste water under the canal.
There are apparently several of these syphons (or siphons - cast iron pipes buried under the canal) the biggest being for the Gowy River, further south.
The syphon emerges on the other side of the canal next to Mount Manisty and flows out into the Mersey - pictures taken on a previous walk along the outer bank of the canal.
Further along is another outfall - I’m guessing this was for the Bridgwater paper mill which was nearby. The water jets were presumably to wash bits of rag etc. off the filter drum.
There are two reports on here for the paper plant before it was demolished in around 2010
https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/bridgewater-paper-mill-may-10.50838/
https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/bridgewater-paper-mill-march-may-2010.52009/
Now all that’s left is a large area of waste ground used to store small glittery mountains of waste glass (cullet) for the Recresso recycling plant at the southern end.
