Optimus Prime, Manchester - Various Visits/Re-visits from 2009
Ojay/Stepping Lightly/Spungletrumpet/Mendo/Ninjaboy/Gone/Rookie/Jimmy
(Pics from numerous visits here over the past 12 months)
The old ones are still the best, there isn't many places that you can re-visit and think WOW! (Certainly not in Manchester)
I was lucky enough for SL to show me in here 2 years ago, after him and Scott discovered it a couple of years prior
Back then there was no disabled access unlike today, which kinda takes the fun out of it, but that's progress
The River Irk, is culverted approx 1km underneath the city, from Redbank
It first passes under Scotland Bridge and emerges downstream (as seen in the pic above) ^^
Dropping down a 2m weir the Irk enters the culvert through a 20ft brick arch, passing underneath Victoria Station and emerging at Huntsbank, where it joins the Irwell
Once down the scale of the place is something else, no matter how many times you come here it's still a WOW!
Another example of the Victorians over engineering stuff
Spungletrumpet, lurking in the Irk
20ft below the Station can be found the original cattle bridge, which linked Long Millgate with Walkers Croft
It is now covered over and serves as a utility tunnel
It's not an illusion Mendo actually explores, [/picture it happened] !!
Other features include:
A couple of sewers/oveflows
'Helter Skelter' - Gone's favourite drain
Coal chute
Morgue chute
(For dead cattle)
A watercourse that dates back to 1792
The watercourse was known to run from Old Millgate (opposite Hanover Street) down to the Irk
We crawled up it before the building work started above, this time SL shot back up to reveal some very new RCP and a split lid that simply wouldn't budge!
Original bridge which dates back to 1826, this section of the Irk was culverted in 1845
Heading downstream, the river is much deeper, as Sneak once said, there is some "Serious badman flowage in here" which does make crossing a little tricky
The 4ft Albino Pike wasn't out to play, maybe next time
The levels were a lot lower than previous visits, thus we were able to get right upto the outfall that leads into the Irwell
To go any further would require a boat, as it's beyond chest deep as we found out a long time ago
Thanks for looking
