THE MEDLOCK CULVERTS (and a few cso’s)
I visited different parts of these over the course of about a year. Some of the cso’s took longer to find than others but all (but one) of them are brick – I’d recommend any of them, they’re fantastic! It’s doesn’t include all the cso’s, just the ‘easier’ to access one’s. There's at least two more at the upstream end I've not seen. They’re all built in different styles, which keeps it interesting too. I’ve described them here from the downstream end first
Spartacus and Budge were actually the last ones I visited. They’re brick built culverts but rather than being one single, long arch they’re constructed using several steel I beams and several smaller brick arches link them together. This style is used on some of the bridges further upstream and on other bridges and tunnels across the country. It’s obviously a reasonably cheap but strong way of covering what would otherwise just be two opposing retaining walls. The culverts start with two single arch bridges built alongside one another.
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Obviously the river flows fastest on the outside, depositing sediments and rubbish, etc on the inside
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Leaving Spartacus, there’s a few more I beams reinforcing the retaining walls
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Like Spartacus, Budge has all manner of crap built up against the inside of the curve. Millions of rats reside here, ready to frighten the unwary
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Looking upstream
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Oxford Road Bridge, one of the easier accesses is from the (hidden) footbridge behind it, when the gate’s open
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Hulme Flume’s Little Bother was the first CSO I ever explored. The brickwork amazed me and I got the draining bug immediately. This is obviously the outfall and I learnt to expect that future cso’s would also probably be tucked away like this. I later learnt it’s on Manchesters D Interceptor
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I’d only recently learnt to light paint so apologies for the over exposed photo. I wore gloves from that point on as well!
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Just downstream of the penstock is this slide. One slip here and I’d have seen Hulme flume itself, the scary way – fuck that!
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UMIST is split box culvert, constructed of concrete below the Uni of the same name. Other than this infall its quite featureless but makes for a stealthier approach to HFLB
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By now I’d seen a few other culverts and tunnels, etc and wanted more brick porn! A bit of research lead me to various blogs and maps and I discovered the next one upstream was One Shot on the A interceptor, so that’s where I went next. Definitely not one for the vertically challenged this one – unless you know yer lids. I used a nearby tree for balance but I still breached my waders – just!
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Working back, this is the chamber at the far end. Although it’s nice I’m not really sure why it’s so big because apart from a small junction and an access ladder there’s not much here
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This is the overflow weir. Presumably it’s been altered over the years, judging by the mismatching bricks above the curved stone/ concrete blocks. Just around the corner the sewer disappears under a wall, which looked like it used to have a small penstock on it.
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This is the outfall pipe, which winds its way down to the river. The brickwork’s mint, I couldn’t believe how clean it all was
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Another example of this “several I beams and several brick arches” style of bridge, but this one never seemed to carry anything substantial from what I can see. Any ideas?
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Slim Pickings! Took me fuckin ages to find this one and if yer more than a 34” waist yer’ll defo need keys – and to know where the lid is (can’t help I’m afraid!) Be careful with yer camera and tripod if yer try this alone. You’ll also struggle to get a bag through. It was worth the effort though and the long walk up the pipe, the brickwork’s fantastic. It's part of the work 6 sewer - one of the newer ones.
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The RBP enters the chamber at the top of this slide, whereby under normal conditions it flows under a tiny penstock into the sewer beyond. In storm conditions and with the penstock lowered it acts as a stilling pond in that the 9ft pipe itself retains excess flows, giving the system further downstream chance to catch up (I think). When it fills right up it spills over the weir and down it goes to the river. I’d love to see these all in action one day – from a safe distance!
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Standing atop the weir wall
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The huge access shaft above the weir wall. Most of the nuts/ bolts were missing from the steel barriers when I was there, so the fences are loose – be careful of that!
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This was the last one I photographed. Visited with @elhomer, I’d actually done the through trip previously without my camera, while searching for slim pickings! I’d kinda ‘borrowed’ someones boat before the footbridge, which meant I didn’t have to re-traverse back to some deep, sketchy stuff at the point where the ‘tow path’ stops. It was a pleasure to meet yer bud – my photos are no match against yours at all!
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The overflow from the Ashton canal – fucking slim pickings wasn’t up here either!
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Big ‘umpty is probably the third biggest brick culvert in the country (that I can think of) beaten only by Sheffield’s Megatron and the Irk’s Optimus Prime. This huuuge culvert is about 250m long and curves gently along its entire length – just long enough to make it pretty furkin dark halfway through. The invert of the culvert is all long curves as well, so the safest way to traverse it also involves the most effort.
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I left my trainers at the outfall and as we opted to leave via the infall we had a fairly long walk back through the graveyard to fetch them! Interestingly, part of the graveyard and “not short of fifty” bodies were washed away in the great flood of 1872. A few years after the great flood, construction of Manchester’s first main drainage system was started as was what is now known as the red river that runs through the cemetery.
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Well that’s it, I hope you liked it. Thanks to those who have reported on these and similar ones before me, be it on here or elsewhere. It certainly made for a different summer than normal and has lead me to deeper and smellier places down in the smoke in search of more Victorian brickwork. Not sure what the photo limit is now but I may add more later.
I visited different parts of these over the course of about a year. Some of the cso’s took longer to find than others but all (but one) of them are brick – I’d recommend any of them, they’re fantastic! It’s doesn’t include all the cso’s, just the ‘easier’ to access one’s. There's at least two more at the upstream end I've not seen. They’re all built in different styles, which keeps it interesting too. I’ve described them here from the downstream end first
Spartacus and Budge were actually the last ones I visited. They’re brick built culverts but rather than being one single, long arch they’re constructed using several steel I beams and several smaller brick arches link them together. This style is used on some of the bridges further upstream and on other bridges and tunnels across the country. It’s obviously a reasonably cheap but strong way of covering what would otherwise just be two opposing retaining walls. The culverts start with two single arch bridges built alongside one another.
Obviously the river flows fastest on the outside, depositing sediments and rubbish, etc on the inside
Leaving Spartacus, there’s a few more I beams reinforcing the retaining walls
Like Spartacus, Budge has all manner of crap built up against the inside of the curve. Millions of rats reside here, ready to frighten the unwary
Looking upstream
Oxford Road Bridge, one of the easier accesses is from the (hidden) footbridge behind it, when the gate’s open
Hulme Flume’s Little Bother was the first CSO I ever explored. The brickwork amazed me and I got the draining bug immediately. This is obviously the outfall and I learnt to expect that future cso’s would also probably be tucked away like this. I later learnt it’s on Manchesters D Interceptor
I’d only recently learnt to light paint so apologies for the over exposed photo. I wore gloves from that point on as well!
Just downstream of the penstock is this slide. One slip here and I’d have seen Hulme flume itself, the scary way – fuck that!
UMIST is split box culvert, constructed of concrete below the Uni of the same name. Other than this infall its quite featureless but makes for a stealthier approach to HFLB
By now I’d seen a few other culverts and tunnels, etc and wanted more brick porn! A bit of research lead me to various blogs and maps and I discovered the next one upstream was One Shot on the A interceptor, so that’s where I went next. Definitely not one for the vertically challenged this one – unless you know yer lids. I used a nearby tree for balance but I still breached my waders – just!
Working back, this is the chamber at the far end. Although it’s nice I’m not really sure why it’s so big because apart from a small junction and an access ladder there’s not much here
This is the overflow weir. Presumably it’s been altered over the years, judging by the mismatching bricks above the curved stone/ concrete blocks. Just around the corner the sewer disappears under a wall, which looked like it used to have a small penstock on it.
This is the outfall pipe, which winds its way down to the river. The brickwork’s mint, I couldn’t believe how clean it all was
Another example of this “several I beams and several brick arches” style of bridge, but this one never seemed to carry anything substantial from what I can see. Any ideas?
Slim Pickings! Took me fuckin ages to find this one and if yer more than a 34” waist yer’ll defo need keys – and to know where the lid is (can’t help I’m afraid!) Be careful with yer camera and tripod if yer try this alone. You’ll also struggle to get a bag through. It was worth the effort though and the long walk up the pipe, the brickwork’s fantastic. It's part of the work 6 sewer - one of the newer ones.
The RBP enters the chamber at the top of this slide, whereby under normal conditions it flows under a tiny penstock into the sewer beyond. In storm conditions and with the penstock lowered it acts as a stilling pond in that the 9ft pipe itself retains excess flows, giving the system further downstream chance to catch up (I think). When it fills right up it spills over the weir and down it goes to the river. I’d love to see these all in action one day – from a safe distance!
Standing atop the weir wall
The huge access shaft above the weir wall. Most of the nuts/ bolts were missing from the steel barriers when I was there, so the fences are loose – be careful of that!
This was the last one I photographed. Visited with @elhomer, I’d actually done the through trip previously without my camera, while searching for slim pickings! I’d kinda ‘borrowed’ someones boat before the footbridge, which meant I didn’t have to re-traverse back to some deep, sketchy stuff at the point where the ‘tow path’ stops. It was a pleasure to meet yer bud – my photos are no match against yours at all!
The overflow from the Ashton canal – fucking slim pickings wasn’t up here either!
Big ‘umpty is probably the third biggest brick culvert in the country (that I can think of) beaten only by Sheffield’s Megatron and the Irk’s Optimus Prime. This huuuge culvert is about 250m long and curves gently along its entire length – just long enough to make it pretty furkin dark halfway through. The invert of the culvert is all long curves as well, so the safest way to traverse it also involves the most effort.
I left my trainers at the outfall and as we opted to leave via the infall we had a fairly long walk back through the graveyard to fetch them! Interestingly, part of the graveyard and “not short of fifty” bodies were washed away in the great flood of 1872. A few years after the great flood, construction of Manchester’s first main drainage system was started as was what is now known as the red river that runs through the cemetery.
Well that’s it, I hope you liked it. Thanks to those who have reported on these and similar ones before me, be it on here or elsewhere. It certainly made for a different summer than normal and has lead me to deeper and smellier places down in the smoke in search of more Victorian brickwork. Not sure what the photo limit is now but I may add more later.
