Firstly I thank NightVision, Adam, Mike, LeicesterUrbanXP and anyone else I managed to drag out with me and went down to "have a look".
This report is about 2 years overdue now and im afraid does not include many photos. Im putting this here to document what we have done ready for the next stage of things.
Like Leicester, Coventry has some very large major trunk sewers. Coventry in fact has 2. It was quite clear that the sewers where large and worty of finding due to the film "The Italian Job".
The 2 sewers are called "Sowe Valley Sewer" and "Sherborne Valley Sewer".
Our coventry project started after we had pretty much identified and visited all the access points for the main sewer in Leicester "Abbey Tunnel Sewer". How ever I wanted to research this one a bit more and see if I could figure it out on a map before heading there.
So after finding out as much documentation as possible, the core route of both sewers had been figured out..
So it was then onto actually getting down there, with no gas monitors or waders, besides we knew that the flow of a trunk would not be walkable any how.
So I drive over to Cov, pick up some friends and we decide to first visit a neer by abandoned pumping station just to satisfy our curiosity about it. And then we head on foot following closely to where I guessed our target access manhole was.
How ever it wasnt until several hours later we finally managed to locate the manhole that we wanted, pretty much right next to where we parked the car for the final "last hope" spot. It was only then that I figured out that only half of the access shafts had been turned into manholes, the rest where just concrete topped.
So finally we manage to crack one of the sewers "Sowe Valley Sewer"...
(some of you have seen these photos already)
Notice the fibre optic cable holding up all the fanny rags!
Luckily, the second visit went a little more smothly as we tried to tackle the second sewer which went a lot smoother, but to be quite honest pretty much the same. I do have some photos of that visit, how ever I need to find them, should I do I will add them to this post.
I hope this post serves as an encouragement to anyone else thats interested in sewer networks and perhaps someone would wish to join as we try to photograph the sewer network. My time since beginning our family is far less than it used to be.
Part 2 will arrive in due course
This report is about 2 years overdue now and im afraid does not include many photos. Im putting this here to document what we have done ready for the next stage of things.
Like Leicester, Coventry has some very large major trunk sewers. Coventry in fact has 2. It was quite clear that the sewers where large and worty of finding due to the film "The Italian Job".
The 2 sewers are called "Sowe Valley Sewer" and "Sherborne Valley Sewer".
Our coventry project started after we had pretty much identified and visited all the access points for the main sewer in Leicester "Abbey Tunnel Sewer". How ever I wanted to research this one a bit more and see if I could figure it out on a map before heading there.
So after finding out as much documentation as possible, the core route of both sewers had been figured out..
So it was then onto actually getting down there, with no gas monitors or waders, besides we knew that the flow of a trunk would not be walkable any how.
So I drive over to Cov, pick up some friends and we decide to first visit a neer by abandoned pumping station just to satisfy our curiosity about it. And then we head on foot following closely to where I guessed our target access manhole was.
How ever it wasnt until several hours later we finally managed to locate the manhole that we wanted, pretty much right next to where we parked the car for the final "last hope" spot. It was only then that I figured out that only half of the access shafts had been turned into manholes, the rest where just concrete topped.
So finally we manage to crack one of the sewers "Sowe Valley Sewer"...
(some of you have seen these photos already)
Notice the fibre optic cable holding up all the fanny rags!
Luckily, the second visit went a little more smothly as we tried to tackle the second sewer which went a lot smoother, but to be quite honest pretty much the same. I do have some photos of that visit, how ever I need to find them, should I do I will add them to this post.
I hope this post serves as an encouragement to anyone else thats interested in sewer networks and perhaps someone would wish to join as we try to photograph the sewer network. My time since beginning our family is far less than it used to be.
Part 2 will arrive in due course
