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Report - - Eastham to Manisty Ship Canal Walk (Cheshire, Aug, 2019) | Other Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Eastham to Manisty Ship Canal Walk (Cheshire, Aug, 2019)

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urbanchemist

28DL Regular User
Regular User
A walk along the landward side of the Manchester Ship Canal from Eastham (Queen Elizabeth) Dock to Manisty Mount.
This used to be a wooded marshy area and is now mostly post-industrial wilderness, with broken brick underfoot.
The main aim was to check out a couple of small structures at the southern (Mount Manisty) end which looked like they may be derelict, with a few other minor things along the way.
Pictures are a mixture of camera and phone.

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Starting from the quay just south of Eastham Docks, it seems to be a tradition to record the names of ships who tie up here along with the names and ranks of the crew.

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Two small structures in the undergrowth.

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An empty pumphouse - there’s another one shown on old maps further along but only the foundations remain.

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Some sort of bunker, may be WW2 - nothing inside except a wall with roosting butterflies.

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Next we come to the outfall from the GM/Vauxhall water treatment plant which takes effluent from the enormous car factory over the road.
The first 50m or so of this has been reported before, and nothing has changed except for the addition of a couple of grills.
https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/vauxhall-treatment-plant-drain-ellesmere-port-april-11.63095/
https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/vauxhall-trade-effluent-drain-ellesmere-port-october-11.65358/

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First up is an octagonal chamber. Looking back towards the outfall…

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...and on down to a grill…

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…ending up in an open chamber.

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Beyond this is a gully with quite deep water - a natural drainage feature shown on old maps.

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The drain then heads under the road.

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Looking back towards the entrance from a small chamber…

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Facing forwards again there are two pipes.

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The right hand one ends in a slightly smelly chamber with something about 4ft diameter heading off to the left - too small to bother with.

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The left hand one carries for a bit, this picture looking back…

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…to another small chamber with steps.

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The water in front of the steps was too deep for wellies at this point and my back was beginning to complain so I called it a day.
In the distance there’s what looked like another set of steps - by that stage you would be somewhere under the car plant.

Next up is another outfall, this time for the Rivacre River which is piped through the canal bank for about 50m with a grill on the landside entrance.
Not really explorable unless you want to heave up one of the heavy flaps.
The hill on the other side of the canal on the left of the top photo is Mount Manisty, made from the earth excavated when the canal was being built - it’s now a complete jungle with a lot of wildlife.

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Beside the beginning of the Rivacre culvert is the entrance to the Hooton syphon, which was built to channel waste water under the canal.
There are apparently several of these syphons (or siphons - cast iron pipes buried under the canal) the biggest being for the Gowy River, further south.

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The syphon emerges on the other side of the canal next to Mount Manisty and flows out into the Mersey - pictures taken on a previous walk along the outer bank of the canal.

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Further along is another outfall - I’m guessing this was for the Bridgwater paper mill which was nearby. The water jets were presumably to wash bits of rag etc. off the filter drum.

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There are two reports on here for the paper plant before it was demolished in around 2010

https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/bridgewater-paper-mill-may-10.50838/


https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/bridgewater-paper-mill-march-may-2010.52009/

Now all that’s left is a large area of waste ground used to store small glittery mountains of waste glass (cullet) for the Recresso recycling plant at the southern end.

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urbanchemist

28DL Regular User
Regular User
Continued.

Finally arriving at the first target, a concrete shed, I was hoping this might be something interesting and electrical. But it wasn’t, it was almost completely empty as well as annoyingly awkward to get into.
There is a little substation next to it, but that’s live. It consists of two large rooms, one of which contains a couple of partly demolished concrete vessels.
Maybe this was once part of the paper plant - the metal fixings suggest the vessels had overhead stirrers for mixing.

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Below a bit of paper found in one of the desks.
I originally thought the names might be chemical dyes, but instead this seems to be a shopping list for painting boats - Koporye, Inkurles etc. are all names of ships that used to use the canal before they were scrapped.

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Next door to the shed is a small two storey office block, probably dating from the 50’s.
Inside it was somewhat trashed modernised offices, last occupied ca. 2016 according to some printed emails. The business(es) here mostly seemed to be freight handling, with plenty of pictures of boats.

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Overall, nothing terribly exciting on this walk - done mainly because the weather was good and it was local.
It seems likely that some of this wasteland will be redeveloped as part of Peel’s Atlantic Gateway plans for the ship canal.
 

dweeb

28DL Regular User
Regular User
As Speed said little wanders like that pay dividends from time to time. What is that computer thingy?!
 

urbanchemist

28DL Regular User
Regular User
What a fab report. Have you ever considered exploring 'Stanlow Island'?
This Liverpool Echo Report from last year is fascinating.
https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/business/secret-island-mersey-abbey-ruins-15089100
There are some pictures from the island here https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/ship-canal-walk-cheshire-aug-2018.114788/, but not of the abbey remains.
I did have a quick look while I was there but the place is so overgrown it would have taken all day to find them.
 

urbanchemist

28DL Regular User
Regular User
Good to see some photos of the Vauxhall effluent drain again, still the only drainy thing I've ventured into one crazy night ages ago with Xan.
For anyone that likes drains (well, concrete ones) there are loads of outfalls on the ship canal - Bunker and Double Trouble are much better value than the Vauxhall one - Bunker is the best, more to see, much easier on the back and bonus frogs!
 

Calamity Jane

i see beauty in the unloved, places & things
Regular User
I love a wander like this, I found an old shelter, in woodlands, but too heavily overgrown to get to, im going back with tools for job, Ive got to see what the shelter is like. Lovely mooch here, some really great shots
 

pastybarm

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
@Calamity Jane Me too. The dutch explorer Petr Kazil used to do walks very similar to this one.

Thanks so much for that, like a psychogeography walk. Love old rusting infrastructure that noone elses sees or cares about. Great report:thumb
 

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