St00p, sc00p, s00p (or ‘soop’ for short) is a culverted section of Bagley Dike in Sheffield. Bagley Dike rises in Longley Park, flowing in and out of different sized culverts until it eventually flows into the River Don, close to the Meadowhall Shopping Centre. Me and @Esoteric Eric found this section after exploring the earlier stretch (‘Interzone’) outlined here: https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/interzone-bagley-dike-sheffield-november-2017.110809/ However on that occasion we left this bit because we had lost the will to live, and it was even stinkier than the earlier sections.
Fast forward a few months and, in the midst of the current stretch of dry weather, it was time for us to return. So a couple of pints of finest Sheffield pale ale later we made our way down.
In spite of a relatively discrete entry, our progress was initially challenged by a guy demanding to know what we were doing. Once it transpired that we were just weirdos taking photos and not dumping stuff in his local culvert he was happy (and slightly bemused) to let us continue...
Note the pipes to each side in the next pic. There’s plenty of these along the way...
To be honest the other thing that had put us off this section was that it looked pretty st00ptastic, and it is for a short while, but we were relieved to find that the culvert soon opens up for a fair stretch it’s a sizeable 7ft+ stone tunnel.
So far so good! After a bit we were met with a lower section as the culvert briefly split in two, through two darker brick arches. Pretty much onwards from here we encountered a high level of stinkage, and an increasing level of poo s0up...
Looking back here from the left tunnel...
After this brick bit there was a ridiculously st00py flat concrete section, where we could have been excused for calling it a day, but I’m glad we persisted. The concrete section soon opened up again, revealing a sewer overflow chamber to the left of the next picture (dubbed: ‘the sc00p’ due to its curved shape). Note the pile of shit just under the archway in the next pic, which seems to have been the result of the sc00p’s most recent discharge or perhaps more likely from another sewer overflow pipe nearby.
Inside the sc00p was an old penstock above the sewer overflow pipe. The chamber was quite deep, suggesting that it gets quite a lot of flow through here at times. It absolutely stank in here, btw. Initially we thought this might be the source of flow INTO the culvert from a sewer, but @Esoteric Eric suggests afterwards that it's probably more likely the other way round - with this being an outlet for the culvert at times of flooding...
Back outside the sc00p, and into the s00p...
A promising sound of roaring water up ahead led into this nice chamber with a waterfall flowing into another short section of circular brick pipe...
Beyond here things started to get really steamy and s00py, as we found ourselves knee-waste deep at times, particularly problematic for @Esoteric Eric who chosen wellies rather than waders for this event.
There was quite a lot of rubbish submerged in this bit, which I didn’t feel like stopping to photograph, although I now regret not getting evidence of the complete stainless steel kitchen sink unit that had somehow found its way through. Seems like rubbish buildup in this section has been an ongoing issue, as this archive pic from 1981 shows...
With conditions getting deeper and less appealing by the second this is where we left it and turned back. The backed up water comes as a result of the outflow into the don having been covered with a hefty flap at some point in the last few years, meaning that it only opens when there’s enough pressure from the flow inside. I dread to think how deep it gets in here when it’s actually rained recently... here’s an old pic of the outflow from a few months back...
And so we made our escape, grabbing a few final pics along the return route...
Done!
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