History
Handbag, and associated shorter culverts, are a series of culverts carrying the Wood Brook beneath the town of Loughborough. The town is located on a river terrace, and over time, as the town expanded the waterways got in the way. However when the Loughborough Navigation was built in 1778, water from the Wood Brook and River Soar was used to maintain the navigation levels.
With expanstion in the 19th century, a fresh water source was needed following a cholera outbreak in 1848. Town planners made the decision to culvert the Brook in 1870.
Today the Brook combines culverted sections, older construction, and newer concrete constructed sections, whith some quite perculiar merging of the two in places.
The Explore
I'd had this culvert on my to do list for quite a while, but have never really got around to exploring it, despite not living all that far away from Loughborough. So over the weekend I took advantage of the nice weather and got it in the bag... finally.
I'd done a recce previously so I roughly knew where I could access the culverts, so after another quick recce I went back to the car, kitted up and made a somewhat subtle entry from a carpark upstream. From there I just followed the Brook downstream... simple enough.
I emerged from a culvert to be greeted by this.... was this the end? some kind of sumped outfall maybe? Nope, just a rather overgrown infall to another culvert, complete with a still-inflated sex doll I've named Jane.
Anyway.... back to the culvert
Beyond this the Brook has little more than a handful of bridges before it reaches the canal. As light was beginning to fade I called it a day after this, and climbed out in front of a few bemused bar workers.
Handbag, and associated shorter culverts, are a series of culverts carrying the Wood Brook beneath the town of Loughborough. The town is located on a river terrace, and over time, as the town expanded the waterways got in the way. However when the Loughborough Navigation was built in 1778, water from the Wood Brook and River Soar was used to maintain the navigation levels.
With expanstion in the 19th century, a fresh water source was needed following a cholera outbreak in 1848. Town planners made the decision to culvert the Brook in 1870.
Today the Brook combines culverted sections, older construction, and newer concrete constructed sections, whith some quite perculiar merging of the two in places.
The Explore
I'd had this culvert on my to do list for quite a while, but have never really got around to exploring it, despite not living all that far away from Loughborough. So over the weekend I took advantage of the nice weather and got it in the bag... finally.
I'd done a recce previously so I roughly knew where I could access the culverts, so after another quick recce I went back to the car, kitted up and made a somewhat subtle entry from a carpark upstream. From there I just followed the Brook downstream... simple enough.
I emerged from a culvert to be greeted by this.... was this the end? some kind of sumped outfall maybe? Nope, just a rather overgrown infall to another culvert, complete with a still-inflated sex doll I've named Jane.
Anyway.... back to the culvert
Beyond this the Brook has little more than a handful of bridges before it reaches the canal. As light was beginning to fade I called it a day after this, and climbed out in front of a few bemused bar workers.
