History:
After the Second World War, Leicester was badly damaged like many cities due to its strong connections to the manufacturing of hosiery and footwear.
During the rebuild in the 1950s, a ring road was proposed. It was built in the early 1960s, and called the A563 or Troon Way on the section passing between Rushey Mead and Thurmaston. During the construction of Troon Way, a storm relief drain was built beneath after heavy rainfall caused excessive flooding in the area in the 60s.
This takes excess water from Melton Brook to the River Soar in Watermead Park. It is a simple concrete design, about 1.2 miles in length with a diameter of 2.2m. We call this Buttonhole, but it is officially known as the Troon Way Storm Relief Drain or the Melton Brook overflow.
The explore:
@Punk and I had a packed weekend, and we kicked off with Buttonhole. This is Punks favourite drain and he’d always mentioned we’d have to do it sometime, and this was the perfect weekend. Lovely blue skies so we pulled up, donned our gear, and jumped in.
We entered and were immediately faced with a stooped section before reaching the infall.
Reaching the infall chamber, graffiti covered the walls with wise statements. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, “go in drains!”
We sat down to skin up, and as we did so, we started to hear rushing water. Punk and I looked at each other, that’s never a good sound to hear. Punk got up and headed back out to check on the weather situation. It had started to rain, but no water flowed into the infall. This water was coming from the side pipes. We finished skinning up and started to head down the main pipe.
With the flow from the pipes this was already lapping at the soles of my wellies and as we headed further in walking past pipes spewing water at our feet, the CSO was activated adding the faint smell of sewerage. We continued pushing on monitoring the height of the water as we went. Now, anything in a pipe echoes but we could hear loud rushing water, and as we got closer, one pipe was really flowing. We were already getting close to our knees.
Punks favourite drain had cheated on him and we made a hasty exit..
The next day..
Undeterred, we met up with @Lost Explorer and attempted it again. Drizzling, we headed back into the outfall and luckily we couldn’t hear water compared to the day before.
If anybody isn’t aware of the conditions of Buttonhole, it should be a trickle. Punk once famously, or stupidly, did this in flip flops.
Reaching the pipe where we turned back the day before, this was totally different and had turned to a trickle but we were still standing in knee depth water. We instantly knew there was blockage further up the main pipe causing standing water.
Continuing on our thoughts were confirmed. Lots of shingle, stones and silt sat in the pipe from the strong rainstorms earlier in the year.
Trudging on we were faced with more standing water..
The odd remnants of a draining party..
A cracked manhole above providing some gorgeous natural lighting..
And more wise words and the caving clan logo. Those Aussies get everywhere!
We eventually reached the outfall that turned the pipe, to a chamber, to a stoop. The chamber has sumped out at some point as you can see by the waterline. To say I wouldn’t want to be in here at this point would be an understatement, I’d be up to my shoulders!
I continued on through to see the final point. Nothing special but who does a drain and doesn’t see the full thing?! I probably would’ve continued if I was on my own but I didn’t want to keep my colleagues waiting.
Despite this being a “standard concrete pipe” as I describe it, it’s still very photogenic with some nice lighting..
Follow the light, go in drains, you’ll love them!
After the Second World War, Leicester was badly damaged like many cities due to its strong connections to the manufacturing of hosiery and footwear.
During the rebuild in the 1950s, a ring road was proposed. It was built in the early 1960s, and called the A563 or Troon Way on the section passing between Rushey Mead and Thurmaston. During the construction of Troon Way, a storm relief drain was built beneath after heavy rainfall caused excessive flooding in the area in the 60s.
This takes excess water from Melton Brook to the River Soar in Watermead Park. It is a simple concrete design, about 1.2 miles in length with a diameter of 2.2m. We call this Buttonhole, but it is officially known as the Troon Way Storm Relief Drain or the Melton Brook overflow.
The explore:
@Punk and I had a packed weekend, and we kicked off with Buttonhole. This is Punks favourite drain and he’d always mentioned we’d have to do it sometime, and this was the perfect weekend. Lovely blue skies so we pulled up, donned our gear, and jumped in.
We entered and were immediately faced with a stooped section before reaching the infall.
Reaching the infall chamber, graffiti covered the walls with wise statements. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, “go in drains!”
We sat down to skin up, and as we did so, we started to hear rushing water. Punk and I looked at each other, that’s never a good sound to hear. Punk got up and headed back out to check on the weather situation. It had started to rain, but no water flowed into the infall. This water was coming from the side pipes. We finished skinning up and started to head down the main pipe.
With the flow from the pipes this was already lapping at the soles of my wellies and as we headed further in walking past pipes spewing water at our feet, the CSO was activated adding the faint smell of sewerage. We continued pushing on monitoring the height of the water as we went. Now, anything in a pipe echoes but we could hear loud rushing water, and as we got closer, one pipe was really flowing. We were already getting close to our knees.
Punks favourite drain had cheated on him and we made a hasty exit..
The next day..
Undeterred, we met up with @Lost Explorer and attempted it again. Drizzling, we headed back into the outfall and luckily we couldn’t hear water compared to the day before.
If anybody isn’t aware of the conditions of Buttonhole, it should be a trickle. Punk once famously, or stupidly, did this in flip flops.
Reaching the pipe where we turned back the day before, this was totally different and had turned to a trickle but we were still standing in knee depth water. We instantly knew there was blockage further up the main pipe causing standing water.
Continuing on our thoughts were confirmed. Lots of shingle, stones and silt sat in the pipe from the strong rainstorms earlier in the year.
Trudging on we were faced with more standing water..
The odd remnants of a draining party..
A cracked manhole above providing some gorgeous natural lighting..
And more wise words and the caving clan logo. Those Aussies get everywhere!
We eventually reached the outfall that turned the pipe, to a chamber, to a stoop. The chamber has sumped out at some point as you can see by the waterline. To say I wouldn’t want to be in here at this point would be an understatement, I’d be up to my shoulders!
I continued on through to see the final point. Nothing special but who does a drain and doesn’t see the full thing?! I probably would’ve continued if I was on my own but I didn’t want to keep my colleagues waiting.
Despite this being a “standard concrete pipe” as I describe it, it’s still very photogenic with some nice lighting..
Follow the light, go in drains, you’ll love them!
Yeah, was slightly unnerving considering nout was coming from the infall and it was filling..
