Revolver
My thanks go to those who have been here before me and your reports, which helped me find this. It was still a sod to get to though!
Revolver is essentially a victorian CSO that when overflowing spills into the culverted Salteye Brook running parallel to and below it. It's all hidden away under a motorway.
The infall to the culvert is grilled and partially blocked with lots of old floating logs and rubbish. Probably squeezable but I'd got an idea of what lay ahead so opted for the outfall.
Getting to it though was another thing. It's enclosed on two sides by houses and the motorway and surrounded on all sides by many, many brambles. Eventually I found what is probably still the access path that drops down from just off the motorway having bush-whacked over from the nearby stadium.
This was also grilled and a lot of debris had washed through but the hard work of finding it was over and I found myself in the right of two concrete box culverts
Loads of footballs and bottles had washed through. On the left a water course entered through a 5ft concrete pipe.
Further upstream the way appeared to be blocked by a low concrete bridge with the manky river running barely a foot beneath it. This was why I opted to enter from the outfall because to get up on to the bridge involved quite a pull up from culvert base through a window in the downstream side of it. There's no step irons or ladders here - being tall helped quite a lot (climbing in wadorz sux) Coming from the infall way would involve ducking under this bridge for 2m to get to this window above and I'd of dunked me camera.
Below is the bridge and two windows into each box culvert below. The sewer is in a cast iron pipe beneath the bridge and is protected from the rivers flow by a concrete lip, Normal sewage flows come from a 6ft RBP through the overflow into a smaller 3ft RBP. This must carry on for a few meters before taking a sharp 90° left turn and into the pipe under this bridge. If I've lost yer, hopefully it'll make sense in a minute!
Turning around the bridge/ tunnel continues to a door. Beyond this is a small enclosure that looks like its in somebodies back garden with a manhole in it. The sewer must enter this and carry on its merry way to the nearby Eccles Sewage Works.
Here the 6ft RBP enters....
...and it leaves as a smaller 3ft RBP. In storm conditions, spills overflow the weir into the culvert through seven slots in the side of the concrete chamber. I accessed this room from the bridge, with the sewer beneath my feet, until I came to the chambers wall. Then up a set of ladders and down these ones.
I'm not entirely sure why it's capped with concrete at all really - there must be a fair weight supported only on three sides over that distance. You can climb up on to it but there's nothing of interest the other side and it doesn't look like there ever was. As you can see its pretty clean underneath as well.
As usual I left the way I came in. I wasn't sure if you could slide down through the slots back into the culvert the upstream side of that low bridge so this was as far as I came. I wasn't gonna risk dunking myself under the bridge, waders on, camera, keys and phone in hand just to see the upstream section - that'll have to wait for another day. And if I had it'd've been a long walk back round to me van!
And I discovered my waders now leak...
My thanks go to those who have been here before me and your reports, which helped me find this. It was still a sod to get to though!
Revolver is essentially a victorian CSO that when overflowing spills into the culverted Salteye Brook running parallel to and below it. It's all hidden away under a motorway.
The infall to the culvert is grilled and partially blocked with lots of old floating logs and rubbish. Probably squeezable but I'd got an idea of what lay ahead so opted for the outfall.
Getting to it though was another thing. It's enclosed on two sides by houses and the motorway and surrounded on all sides by many, many brambles. Eventually I found what is probably still the access path that drops down from just off the motorway having bush-whacked over from the nearby stadium.
This was also grilled and a lot of debris had washed through but the hard work of finding it was over and I found myself in the right of two concrete box culverts
Loads of footballs and bottles had washed through. On the left a water course entered through a 5ft concrete pipe.
Further upstream the way appeared to be blocked by a low concrete bridge with the manky river running barely a foot beneath it. This was why I opted to enter from the outfall because to get up on to the bridge involved quite a pull up from culvert base through a window in the downstream side of it. There's no step irons or ladders here - being tall helped quite a lot (climbing in wadorz sux) Coming from the infall way would involve ducking under this bridge for 2m to get to this window above and I'd of dunked me camera.
Below is the bridge and two windows into each box culvert below. The sewer is in a cast iron pipe beneath the bridge and is protected from the rivers flow by a concrete lip, Normal sewage flows come from a 6ft RBP through the overflow into a smaller 3ft RBP. This must carry on for a few meters before taking a sharp 90° left turn and into the pipe under this bridge. If I've lost yer, hopefully it'll make sense in a minute!
Turning around the bridge/ tunnel continues to a door. Beyond this is a small enclosure that looks like its in somebodies back garden with a manhole in it. The sewer must enter this and carry on its merry way to the nearby Eccles Sewage Works.
Here the 6ft RBP enters....
...and it leaves as a smaller 3ft RBP. In storm conditions, spills overflow the weir into the culvert through seven slots in the side of the concrete chamber. I accessed this room from the bridge, with the sewer beneath my feet, until I came to the chambers wall. Then up a set of ladders and down these ones.
I'm not entirely sure why it's capped with concrete at all really - there must be a fair weight supported only on three sides over that distance. You can climb up on to it but there's nothing of interest the other side and it doesn't look like there ever was. As you can see its pretty clean underneath as well.
As usual I left the way I came in. I wasn't sure if you could slide down through the slots back into the culvert the upstream side of that low bridge so this was as far as I came. I wasn't gonna risk dunking myself under the bridge, waders on, camera, keys and phone in hand just to see the upstream section - that'll have to wait for another day. And if I had it'd've been a long walk back round to me van!
And I discovered my waders now leak...
