Thornton Valley CSO/Shit-Tank & Fat Of The Land Sewer.
It's worth noting that LittleMike originally discovered a lot of the Bradford Shizzle that many people have since visited
As I'm sure Mike will testify, despite the many trips over the last few years from various drainers & tourists there is still a hell of a lot of un-discovered stuff in Bradford
I have had the pleasure of frequenting the vast network of pipes with Thompski, MJS, WB and Squirrell to name but a few
(There are quite a few of our reports on here)
The tourist stuff is good, but I wanted to see more..
Myself and Squirrell have made many re-visits since last year covering old ground and equally turning up new stuff along the way
I have a rapidly expanding collection of pics, with such places only seen by a select few and a handful of 'new stuff' which once I've finished exploring the rest of it will throw up a newer, much bigger report of the entire lot
One such section that has eluded everyone, including ourselves for some time now is the Thornton Valley CSO (Upstream of Macro)
I stood in front of this huge metal grille (Right of the Macro Infall Below) nearly 18 months ago now with Thompski, curious to know what else was on offer, sadly there was no easy way in
(Still it made for a good picnic site)
>>FFWD 18 months and me and Squirrell had been on it, a previous recce uncovered a potential way in, which in the end was a no go for the time being due to the nature of the site
- LittleMike
Game on, this place needed doing once and for all!
We headed on back to our not so safe location, things had changed a little since we were last there, so it took a while longer..
Cue Squirrell - The human grid key..
"FUCK!, Ojay it's not this, theres a 10ft ladder down to some grille with a load of fresh below"
"Bugger!"
It was pitch black, torches were not an option here so we had to try and find the other location, just as we were about to give up I spotted the lid, which was now partially covered
Props to Squirrell for getting this beast up, down we go a good 8ft before hitting concrete, and flicking our head torches on
WOW!, another 4ft down inside the inspection chamber brought us face to face with a fast flowing river of filth!
Ahead the turds pass under this remote controlled Penstock (It's also below the grid that Squirrell lifted as mentioned earlier ^^)
Here - the sewer heads downstream, dangerously impossible to traverse
We went in search of the Shit-Tank/CSO, access was a climb up and a squeeze through an odd slot/overflow arrangement at the opposite end of this chamber
With a bit of effort we were soon the other side..
Finally - the main CSO chamber come shit-Tank
Up and Over - We climbed the other side of the screening barriers into the overflow
A short walk later, the concrete tunnel curved right to reveal the Grilled Outfall
Hot, sweaty and covered in all manner of crap, we decided to see what else was on offer
Any normal person would have been content at this point and probably headed home for a hot shower, not us
As Squirrell decided to open another lid in case a quick get-away was needed I headed upstream for a quick poke about
FUCK ME! - A sewer almost the size of Bypass!
(We decided to name this place 'Fat of The Land')
We walked for a good while upstream before reaching this fairly big chamber
The lid above wouldn't budge, so we watched the turds for a while
Continuing further upstream, Squirrell decided to clean the place up by booting clumps of fanny plasters back into the fresh
We started to hear noises in the distance, after yet more walking another sewer intersected on the right
It was getting late and we were both knackered, we decided to have another 10 minutes of walking before heading back out..
..No sooner had we made that decision we could hear a faint roar in the distance, plod on!
The air quality worsened quite quickly, there was turds and fatty deposits everywhere and the sewer started to lap over the walkway
It was getting slippery as hell, and we knew it was a long way back to the 'emergency manhole' should things go wrong
The noise got louder and louder before we reached another huge chamber/junction
Here, a 5ft sewer joins from the right and another through a slot on the left
The noise was confusing as there was only a small weir ahead of the 5ft pipe?
Squirrell shot up the ladders the far side for a mooch about while I grabbed some snaps
I eventually climbed the ladders caked in fat and god only knows what, thank fuck I wore gloves this time around!
Standing above the sewer I struggled to get this pic amidst the p00p particles and steamy air
At the opposite side was another set of ladders up - The source of all the noise another big turd vortex
Sadly we both failed to get a picture as there was a 3ft stretch accross a slippery ledge to sudden death!
I did manage this quickie of the bottom of the plughole before it exits through a sequence of slots into the sewer below
We called it a night at this point, as I'm sure Squirrell would agree we were both in need of a hot shower and sleep
Needless to say, we WILL be back
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