36DD is a culverted section of The Porter / Little Don RIver in Stocksbridge, Sheffield. The culvert runs beneath the Tata Steelworks, and also the new Fox Valley shopping centre. The name 36DD is presumably a nod to 80's page three model Sam Fox, on account of her namesake's involvement in the steelworks in the area. The presumably less well endowed industrialist Mr Samuel Fox:
History nabbed from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stocksbridge
The Visit
I'd been holding this one in reserve for a while, for a non-rainy day. This is a big culvert, so the lack of stooping was welcome. However, this is also known as the ankle breaker for a reason - progress is slow for most of the walk due to the very uneven flooring in most sections. I visited this solo and didn't have as long as I would have liked, but I managed to make it to the end of the sizeable first section and back. Some sections were also quite deep, in spite of the fact that there hadn't been any significant rainfall for at least a week.
First challenge was the relatively steep bank it's necessary to negotiate. Once at the bottom I wadered up and stashed my trainers in a bush to retrieve on the way out. Nearly did this in wellies but was glad I didn't when my first step into the river took the water up above my knee. Instead of progressing this way I clambered a bit further along the bank side to a more shallow section. To the right there's a short bridge here leading to the other side. To the centre of the pic you might also be able to make out a low arch - I didn't get chance to check if this was another accessible section...
To the left is the sizeable entrance to the main event...
Pleasant view from within...
Moving in, this first high section reduces slightly in size, but not much. The only comparable culvert in terms of size in Sheff would be Megatron. Nice and flat underfoot here, and plenty of fish.
But not for long as the bottom soon gets more tricky.
Brick leads to spraycrete...
But there are a couple of side passages here that have escaped the more modern reinforcement...
Onwards from here a short way is an exposed section. I didn't hang around too long here, but a peek up the ladder revealed that this leads to the new shopping arcade - on the wall above is a mural by local artist Pete McKee.
There's also a lifering, in case you get in bother...
Onwards, brick...
Not sure if the red jacked was washed down here and hung up by chance, or if someone will be back for it...
Some old metal cable conduits...
The next section carried more cables along the right hand side...
The floor was really uneven here so I accelerated progress by walking on the raised concrete section to the right, behind the cables. It also stank in here...
This shows the source of the stink - not the tunnel to the right, but the break in the concrete section where to opening (bottom left of the pic) revealed a small pipe carrying either sewage. or something that smelt equally rancid.
The next section was concrete again, and equally uneven...
This soon split in to two sections...
These two are from the right section on the way there. Some old redundant mechanism to the left...
And these are from the other side, on the way back...
Once past here, I could see the inflow in the distance. Now short of time, this was as far as I got, deciding it was time to take the long walk back as a freight train made its noisy way above my head.
And a few pics from the way out, stopping just to give my ankles a rest...
Done!
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them all for different reasons, and I’m relatively new to drains compared to some on here. Still got a lot to see, thankfully! ;-)
