Report - Helter Skelter, Manchester – April 2010

[Gone]

Visited with Urban Soldier, Ojay, JimmyHalfway and Rookie.

This Victorian built drain started so that you could walk down it with a slight stoop to a 3/4ft crawl with myself and Rookie going an extra 50 yards with the others waiting behind to see if we could pop a manhole in the next chamber.

At first the water seemed clean but by time we had reached the last chamber it was disgusting, Filled with silt and other drain nastiness including an old Phillips phone Haha.

We entered various chambers and off cuts along the way with a mix of stone and brickwork but also newer concrete sections for the newer manholes, Closer to the Entrance/Exit there was also a small sump causing the water to disappear off elsewhere.

We came together to name it ‘Helter Skelter’ as the twists and turns of the drain, Sometimes on a steep gradient with old handles placed along the walls looked very similar to the fairground ride.

It was a good test for my new P7 and also one of my favourite drains of yet.

Pictures;

Curve

Urban Soldier

Myself just before the serious stooping.

Light

Crew – Urban Soldier, JimmyHalfway, Ojay, Rookie & Myself

Sadly we did record some decent video footage but it has not been edited completely, I’m sure the other will have some pictures too add.
Thanks for Looking, Gone...
​

 

[Ojay]

It surely was a 'helter skelter', we literally came up with the name as we surfed the waves of turd back down!

We went as far as we could go on this one, it was one of the foulest of drains I have seen so far.

I had actually mooched up here back in January with Stepping Lightly but only got as far as the first inspection chamber before calling it a day.

It is primarily a surface water/storm relief drain, however let me tell you sewerfresh is present here. Ask Gone he had a close encounter of the 'Turd' kind. Infact come to think of it we all came face to face with it, especially as we got near the end, stooped in a 3 ft pill shaped sewer with nuggets and fanny plasters in our faces.

In fact it was that bad that we all at one point tried desperately to open manholes on a main road to exit this nasty system.

The brickwork and overall construction is typical of many examples of Victorian sewer in and around Manchester.

We had a blast in here, and hopefully Rookie should be throwing up some V.T when he gets a mo. I was sure glad to get in the shower after this one let me tell you. Was covered in all sorts of shite by the time we made it back out.

Pill shaped goodness, and was a relief to see after the amount of stooping & shite we had to deal with on the way

This is where the flowage disappears into a sump not far from the outfall into the Irk

Having crossed over the chamber below, this was our last glimpse of cleanliness and gulp of fresh air for the next few hours

One of about 5 inspection chambers on the way, we did find a split lid right outside a high profile building,
but was soon decided it wasn't going to happen with the amount of traffic passing over Gones' head

Another set of rungs leading to another 'won't budge' lid 40 feet to the street above

This was the last stretch as it stooped under 4 feet ahead of us, we made it about another 500 yards before Gone slipped in,
Urban Soldier couldn't move any further, I had had enough and to be fair Jimmy Halfway's LIDL waders wouldn't have took any more punishment. Oh and Rookie stood there in the soup of shite filming it all without a care in the world.... HA HA.

As I said we did make it further than this, but tis the last official photo from this point, the rest is being edited by Rookie as we speak.

To sum it up A LOAD OF SHITE! DRAIN0R Win, and plenty of all round you big turds!

Thanks for looking​