One Shot, Manchester
Essentially A CSO, comprising a 5ft Brick pipe and a storm overflow upstream, which serves one of Manchester's older sewers - 'Interceptor L' according to the records
Shouts to ConcreteJungle for reppin' this place back in 2009 when the Manchester draining scene was very much alive & kicking..
Probably only ever visited by a handfull of people, if that ?
(Hardly surprising after having waded almost neck deep in festering river water, just to climb into the fucker)
I had always wanted to see this place, yet never really went out of my way to find it
Despite having the info under my nose, it was just something I hoped I would stumble upon whilst checking other systems in the area
This never really happened, and after following up what I thought was it I kind of gave up on the place, although I was always close
Having followed up on a couple of leads recently, I again turned my attention to this place, I even gleaned a clue from CJ himself
Although I'm still clueless as to "The Bus Stop" as one manhole is on a back street, the other in the middle of a busy carriageway..
I decided to don the leaky chesties, in the end I might as well have done this in my underpants I was that soaked
The journey starts with a rather dodgy trip down the river through silt, some deeper bits and all manner of junk to contend with along the way
After some faffing about you can smell the stench from the overflow, long before you get anywhere near it, proper grim is this one!
Now the fun begins, to get to the actual outfall, which is literally 2m away at this point the level gets deeper & deeper and then some
Suffice to say my chesties breached and filled with some of the skankiest river fest I have ever had the displeasure
Clinging to the crumbling brickwork I managed to haul myself in
The outfall is stepped just like HFLB, however this one is quite deep until about 5m in
(Also the vapours that linger aren't pleasant, infact it's only until you pass the first curved section does it appear clean)
Once in a barely 5ft RBP serves as the overflow
A short distance in, I could hear the familiar chimes from a manhole overhead, soon enough a large inspection chamber presented itself
(Clearly a later addition to the much older system)
My battery had died so a GPS fix wasn't possible, however I managed to locate the huge plant lid above ground later on
I pressed on, as the brick pipe twisted and turned beneath the streets, negotiating steamy pockets of bad air
Eventually the sound of the sewer could be heard in the distance, and then ahead was a large brick chamber with a curved overflow weir
The other side the interceptor sewer enters via a 5ft RBP curves around a channel and exits through a 2ft pipe, partially obscured by a defunct penstock
Rusty step irons, a good 10m upto a lid on the Mancunian Way
I took pics of the Outfall just as I was leaving
Whilst I was taking this shot, it began to piss down and I didn't fancy getting stuck so packed up quick and legged it
I'm glad to have finally seen this, however I don't think I'll be rushing back!
