History:
Loddington Culvert is situated in the village of Loddington; located about 3 miles west of Kettering.
The brick and stone construction of the culvert was developed to carry the existing tributary of the Eye Brook under the GNR & LNWR joint railway line that ran from Nottingham via Melton Mowbray, and on to Market Harborough & Northampton, built around 1879. Passenger services were only around six per day in each direction, although it was more heavily used by goods traffic. The line ran on a high embankment passing Loddington.
I’m unsure why the culvert was constructed in this way as it’s unique and @Punk and I debated that it may have been due to cheaper materials during construction.
The explore:
After a full packed plan for the weekend, @Punk and I hit the culvert. Pulling up on a damp day, we donned our gear and as cars passed giving you that usual look of “WTF are you doing?” we headed towards the direction of the Brook.
Punk said he hadn’t visited this in a while, and the undergrowth was thick with stinging nettles and brambles. “Well this has grown” and picking up a stick, Punk led the way hacking at stinging nettles to forge a path. After a little while of trudging through boggy ground, we paused. “I’m sure it was around here somewhere” said Punk.
Well, after walking back on ourselves through more stinging nettles and being stung a few times, we saw the brick structure appear. Dropping into the Brook, I could tell this was going to be good. I like brick.
Unfortunately I didn’t take any photos of the entrance but there has been previous reports so if you are interested, please do check them out!
Looking back towards the entrance.
We headed into the brick section.
Soon side pipes featured calcite formations that Punk so elegantly described as “it looked like the pipe jizzed”.
Heading further into the culvert the section changed from brick to stone. I’ve never seen an example of this, and as mentioned earlier, unsure as to why. You can see a angled clear split as the tunnel changed.
The stone underfoot became uneven and had chunks missing from years of use carrying the water creating pools along the culvert.
Pushing further in we started to see the light and the material changed back to brick again.
After kicking up the water I got this shot to show the ageing state of the structure. Not only are the bricks shifting on the left, in the centre of the flow, a piece of the lip of the archway sits where it fell.
Heading back through I grabbed another shot of the calcite formation.
Obligatory posing shots..
And out into the wilderness and onto the next!
Loddington Culvert is situated in the village of Loddington; located about 3 miles west of Kettering.
The brick and stone construction of the culvert was developed to carry the existing tributary of the Eye Brook under the GNR & LNWR joint railway line that ran from Nottingham via Melton Mowbray, and on to Market Harborough & Northampton, built around 1879. Passenger services were only around six per day in each direction, although it was more heavily used by goods traffic. The line ran on a high embankment passing Loddington.
I’m unsure why the culvert was constructed in this way as it’s unique and @Punk and I debated that it may have been due to cheaper materials during construction.
The explore:
After a full packed plan for the weekend, @Punk and I hit the culvert. Pulling up on a damp day, we donned our gear and as cars passed giving you that usual look of “WTF are you doing?” we headed towards the direction of the Brook.
Punk said he hadn’t visited this in a while, and the undergrowth was thick with stinging nettles and brambles. “Well this has grown” and picking up a stick, Punk led the way hacking at stinging nettles to forge a path. After a little while of trudging through boggy ground, we paused. “I’m sure it was around here somewhere” said Punk.
Well, after walking back on ourselves through more stinging nettles and being stung a few times, we saw the brick structure appear. Dropping into the Brook, I could tell this was going to be good. I like brick.
Unfortunately I didn’t take any photos of the entrance but there has been previous reports so if you are interested, please do check them out!
Looking back towards the entrance.
We headed into the brick section.
Soon side pipes featured calcite formations that Punk so elegantly described as “it looked like the pipe jizzed”.
Heading further into the culvert the section changed from brick to stone. I’ve never seen an example of this, and as mentioned earlier, unsure as to why. You can see a angled clear split as the tunnel changed.
The stone underfoot became uneven and had chunks missing from years of use carrying the water creating pools along the culvert.
Pushing further in we started to see the light and the material changed back to brick again.
After kicking up the water I got this shot to show the ageing state of the structure. Not only are the bricks shifting on the left, in the centre of the flow, a piece of the lip of the archway sits where it fell.
Heading back through I grabbed another shot of the calcite formation.
Obligatory posing shots..
And out into the wilderness and onto the next!
