Visited with FreshFingers; Nickindroy; NinjaM; Ojay and SoundLightGo.
A boat trip down the Tame last summer led to the discovery of the outfall. SoundLightGo sailed his canoe straight into the large brick tunnel and decided it was interesting enough to come back for a proper look. First, we sailed downstream on lilos. I can’t remember now why we chose that method of transport but it was not the greatest idea and resulted in wet legs and the loss of one lilo. Next we sailed in FreshFingers’ rugged inflatable beauty which resulted in hauling it over the rocks each time we hit shallow water. Today, we stayed on dry land and battled through the undergrowth to get there. Nettle stings and bramble thorns in fingers
So, here is Piranha - a toothy, stoopy marathon of a culvert.
It’s a combination of brook and sewers. The brook starts in Ashton-under-Lyne as Hurst Brook then becomes Shaw Brook and finally Jeremy Brook. It fed a reservoir next to Ryecroft Mill. From the 1780s small mills were built alongside the brook and in the 1800s many more cotton mills sprung up in this area. It was culverted in the mid 1800s. There some great old photos here of Ashton mills.
Like many things, culverts get better with age and this is a fine example of ~150 years of water seeping, dripping and gushing its way to the river.
First chamber
To the left a sewer, to the right fresh(ish) water. I left the boys to look at the sewer and sat in the darkness, just a slice of light coming through the grid. I could hear water from every direction - the sewer’s distant roar, the brook’s soft trickling over uneven bricks and droplets falling and echoing beside me.
Junction
Stone
Fungus
Stalagberg
Icicles
Stone Arch
Low Arch
Buttresses
Reinforcements
Silhouette
This is as far as we went with the brook. It comes from a much smaller tunnel here. To FreshFingers’ right is the sluice gate in the next pic.
To the left was the sludgy, stinking final stretch. Possibly oil from the railways above, it was black and pungent. Added to that was accidental sewage from a leaking pipe somewhere above this tunnel. Finally made it to our pot of gold
Down below the streets and houses, drainers stooping low,
Everyone can see them smiling in the manholes.
Paint the whole world with a rainbow.
All along the streams and sewers, shining in the flow,
See the colours of the rainbow as the fresh floats by.
Paint the whole world with a rainbow.
See also Ojay's report
A boat trip down the Tame last summer led to the discovery of the outfall. SoundLightGo sailed his canoe straight into the large brick tunnel and decided it was interesting enough to come back for a proper look. First, we sailed downstream on lilos. I can’t remember now why we chose that method of transport but it was not the greatest idea and resulted in wet legs and the loss of one lilo. Next we sailed in FreshFingers’ rugged inflatable beauty which resulted in hauling it over the rocks each time we hit shallow water. Today, we stayed on dry land and battled through the undergrowth to get there. Nettle stings and bramble thorns in fingers
So, here is Piranha - a toothy, stoopy marathon of a culvert.
It’s a combination of brook and sewers. The brook starts in Ashton-under-Lyne as Hurst Brook then becomes Shaw Brook and finally Jeremy Brook. It fed a reservoir next to Ryecroft Mill. From the 1780s small mills were built alongside the brook and in the 1800s many more cotton mills sprung up in this area. It was culverted in the mid 1800s. There some great old photos here of Ashton mills.
Like many things, culverts get better with age and this is a fine example of ~150 years of water seeping, dripping and gushing its way to the river.
First chamber
To the left a sewer, to the right fresh(ish) water. I left the boys to look at the sewer and sat in the darkness, just a slice of light coming through the grid. I could hear water from every direction - the sewer’s distant roar, the brook’s soft trickling over uneven bricks and droplets falling and echoing beside me.
Junction
Stone
Fungus
Stalagberg
Icicles
Stone Arch
Low Arch
Buttresses
Reinforcements
Silhouette
This is as far as we went with the brook. It comes from a much smaller tunnel here. To FreshFingers’ right is the sluice gate in the next pic.
To the left was the sludgy, stinking final stretch. Possibly oil from the railways above, it was black and pungent. Added to that was accidental sewage from a leaking pipe somewhere above this tunnel. Finally made it to our pot of gold
Down below the streets and houses, drainers stooping low,
Everyone can see them smiling in the manholes.
Paint the whole world with a rainbow.
All along the streams and sewers, shining in the flow,
See the colours of the rainbow as the fresh floats by.
Paint the whole world with a rainbow.
See also Ojay's report
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