Firstly I’d like to thank alley for her book – Subterranean Stockport. It’s provided me with many hours of enjoyment exploring the area and basically got me into urbexing! This report isn’t a scratch on what she and her chums achieved. Buy the book!
I said I’d do a report on this place a while back but just never got round to it until now – sorry about that. I’ve been working on a small hydro-plant being built beside Stringers Weir on the River Goyt and although I’d heard that there were tunnels in the area, I’d no idea how long they’d be or what their purpose was. Indeed, the whole reason I was working there (to set out the hydro-plant) was because of the weir. Obviously the weir provides a head of water for a turbine but its original purpose was to provide a constant supply of water to the tunnel.
Stringers Tunnel / Deep Silt / The Beast Of Stockport
There’s very little information about this place on the internet, other than what a few others have put up on various forums or blogs. I don’t suspect many people go down here. It’s very, very silty and making progress is very slow. Wellies won’t cut it – you’ll lose them, its definitely a waders or wetsuit job. Luckily we had several pairs on site!
I’ve been down this tunnel five times now! Once with ferret to have a look and we made it barely 100m before he decided he didn’t like the mud and we turned back. Then on my own. I couldn’t bare working right next to it knowing there was more to explore. That time I got as far as I could in waders before retreating. Next time chizzy the fixer came with me. We’d got lilos but he didn’t like the sound of the plastics factory above (formally Howards Mill) so turned back, when I stated crawling. When the narrow bit opened up the water got deeper so I liloed for about 15 minutes until one ear was in the water and the other was against the roof of the tunnel. With no sign of anything changing I turned back, gutted! Next time was with Hydro. We’d got in from the plastics factory and I thought we were past the deep water. Hurray Henry! New unexplored ground I thought but soon started to recognise some features. I’d not seen the lid we used for access above on previous explores. Ah well. Lastly I went back to get some better pics. I’ve vowed never to return!
The weir, with its new cill, providing a reservoir of water for the tunnel behind the trees. They were both constructed in 1791 - 225 years ago. No mean feat, its a decent size river this, especially whens its been raining
The old penstock control, inside its concrete chamber with ladders leading about 20ft down to the tunnel
Looking back towards the sluice chamber and ladders. There's a lot of deep muddy sections like this!
Every now and then it eases, but is rarely tall enough to stand up properly (not for me anyway). Note the old tide marks
More slop!
New Zealand Road shaft sunk in 1957 - 20m deep
This pretty formation is one of only a few other landmarks
Woyoi......they're still there........
This is probably the nicest bit! Its dry an spacious an stuff
This is where the tunnels enters Howards Reservoir. The tunnel used to end here but was extended to supply water to the power station
This is the manhole shaft that I'd missed on earlier visits. Me and hydro entered from here and I got all excited for about 30 seconds!
The tunnel continues like this for some distance until eventually the water meets the roof and I could glide no further.
I said I’d do a report on this place a while back but just never got round to it until now – sorry about that. I’ve been working on a small hydro-plant being built beside Stringers Weir on the River Goyt and although I’d heard that there were tunnels in the area, I’d no idea how long they’d be or what their purpose was. Indeed, the whole reason I was working there (to set out the hydro-plant) was because of the weir. Obviously the weir provides a head of water for a turbine but its original purpose was to provide a constant supply of water to the tunnel.
Stringers Tunnel / Deep Silt / The Beast Of Stockport
There’s very little information about this place on the internet, other than what a few others have put up on various forums or blogs. I don’t suspect many people go down here. It’s very, very silty and making progress is very slow. Wellies won’t cut it – you’ll lose them, its definitely a waders or wetsuit job. Luckily we had several pairs on site!
I’ve been down this tunnel five times now! Once with ferret to have a look and we made it barely 100m before he decided he didn’t like the mud and we turned back. Then on my own. I couldn’t bare working right next to it knowing there was more to explore. That time I got as far as I could in waders before retreating. Next time chizzy the fixer came with me. We’d got lilos but he didn’t like the sound of the plastics factory above (formally Howards Mill) so turned back, when I stated crawling. When the narrow bit opened up the water got deeper so I liloed for about 15 minutes until one ear was in the water and the other was against the roof of the tunnel. With no sign of anything changing I turned back, gutted! Next time was with Hydro. We’d got in from the plastics factory and I thought we were past the deep water. Hurray Henry! New unexplored ground I thought but soon started to recognise some features. I’d not seen the lid we used for access above on previous explores. Ah well. Lastly I went back to get some better pics. I’ve vowed never to return!
The weir, with its new cill, providing a reservoir of water for the tunnel behind the trees. They were both constructed in 1791 - 225 years ago. No mean feat, its a decent size river this, especially whens its been raining
The old penstock control, inside its concrete chamber with ladders leading about 20ft down to the tunnel
Looking back towards the sluice chamber and ladders. There's a lot of deep muddy sections like this!
Every now and then it eases, but is rarely tall enough to stand up properly (not for me anyway). Note the old tide marks
More slop!
New Zealand Road shaft sunk in 1957 - 20m deep
This pretty formation is one of only a few other landmarks
Woyoi......they're still there........
This is probably the nicest bit! Its dry an spacious an stuff
This is where the tunnels enters Howards Reservoir. The tunnel used to end here but was extended to supply water to the power station
This is the manhole shaft that I'd missed on earlier visits. Me and hydro entered from here and I got all excited for about 30 seconds!
The tunnel continues like this for some distance until eventually the water meets the roof and I could glide no further.