Busy doing other drains at the moment but decided to quickly post this up, mainly to try different camera settings before doing the bigger and better drains. 
Absolutely nothing to it, just a 2.5ft diameter RCP which goes for around 50m before meeting a manhole chamber and shrinking down to 1ft tall concrete box. It carries a small brook which runs open alongside Reading Road in Chineham towards Petty's Brook where it outfalls, it also takes surface water flows from a small part of Chineham as well.
Me and my friend used to mess about in here, we used to lift the manhole and eat our Tesco's Sandwiches in the chamber, many laughs and good times were had down there lol! We always named it 'Tiny Tunnel', and so the name just stuck. To be fair this name could have been given to about 90% of Basingstoke's drains.
Outfall into Petty's Brook. Interestingly above the tunnel are 2 holes where I imagine a flap valve used to be, even appears to be a rusted outline too. About a month ago when we last visited we removed a massive root thing which was growing out of the right wingwall and causing the water to build up, you can see it in the bottom right of the image.
About 1/4 in. The watermarks on the walls and roof are caused by Petty's Brook when in various stages of flood backing up into the tunnel (See why a flap valve makes sense?), the further you go the lower they get as the pipe goes slightly uphill.
Size comparison.
Manhole chamber, the sticks n' bricks left by us. We used the bricks as seats and the sticks were our emergency spider removal system. In February I actually went down the 1ft tall box while laying on a skateboard, but backed out as a pile of rubble and silt ahead proved a challenge to get past. I got soaked as the skateboard's wheels got stuck on the joints and therefore had to get off the skateboard to move.
Although the manhole cover above looks a right pain to budge, it was probably the lightest cover I've ever shifted!
Thanks for reading, better drains soon!
Absolutely nothing to it, just a 2.5ft diameter RCP which goes for around 50m before meeting a manhole chamber and shrinking down to 1ft tall concrete box. It carries a small brook which runs open alongside Reading Road in Chineham towards Petty's Brook where it outfalls, it also takes surface water flows from a small part of Chineham as well.
Me and my friend used to mess about in here, we used to lift the manhole and eat our Tesco's Sandwiches in the chamber, many laughs and good times were had down there lol! We always named it 'Tiny Tunnel', and so the name just stuck. To be fair this name could have been given to about 90% of Basingstoke's drains.
Outfall into Petty's Brook. Interestingly above the tunnel are 2 holes where I imagine a flap valve used to be, even appears to be a rusted outline too. About a month ago when we last visited we removed a massive root thing which was growing out of the right wingwall and causing the water to build up, you can see it in the bottom right of the image.
About 1/4 in. The watermarks on the walls and roof are caused by Petty's Brook when in various stages of flood backing up into the tunnel (See why a flap valve makes sense?), the further you go the lower they get as the pipe goes slightly uphill.
Size comparison.
Manhole chamber, the sticks n' bricks left by us. We used the bricks as seats and the sticks were our emergency spider removal system. In February I actually went down the 1ft tall box while laying on a skateboard, but backed out as a pile of rubble and silt ahead proved a challenge to get past. I got soaked as the skateboard's wheels got stuck on the joints and therefore had to get off the skateboard to move.
Although the manhole cover above looks a right pain to budge, it was probably the lightest cover I've ever shifted!
Thanks for reading, better drains soon!
