Big shout up to Nuboid for flagging this one up and joining me on this explore , Meeting up before 8 on a chilly morning this was our first drain explore in the city of Manchester and we where not disappointed . Climbing in to the river Irk and wadding through the knee deep rather fast flowing water we arrived at the start point
After snapping this first pic the battery in my camera decided to retire ! luckily i always carry a couple of spares phew !!!!
large diameter brick built pipe the largest i have seen
starting to get a bit more rocky underfoot
a large part of the drain had been spraycreted for extra strength
well i have seen some things down drains but a chandler ! wow thats a first lol
one pipe had been bricked up here for some reason
love the colours in this pic taken at the bottom of the staircase looking downstream
wow never seen anything like this before
at the top of the staircase 2 small pipes go under the penstock we followed the stairs up to the left
looking up the manhole steps there was a branch of to the right from reading other reports we knew this would lead us to the penstock control
climbing of the step irons we arrived in an L shaped small brick corridor
the penstock control in great condition now back down the way we came up
these steps lead you down to the 2 small pipes at the top of the staircase we diddnt go through these but opted to walk across the penstock itself
in to Inhospitable now it was very rocky underfoot
going downstream
after a bit of a slog the pipe widened here
before returning to its previous size the sound of gushing water was getting louder
this last section went down hill rather quickly and the flow gathered pace there was no safe way out here as its a drop at the end of the pipe hence hearing the gushing water earlier had to be careful not to slip as i would have been washed out on to the rocks below it was quite dodgy more than the pic suggests
stood very precariously near the end you can see the drop and what appear to be the ruins of an old mill of sorts , Dangerous this
coming back upstream back to the penstock
quite deep in places and hard going underfoot
other side of the penstock now going upstream you could see light at the end of the tunnel
an old almost keyhole shaped pipe branching of the main pipe this drain was packed with features
approaching the end but not before we encounter an under ground old bridge
After snapping this first pic the battery in my camera decided to retire ! luckily i always carry a couple of spares phew !!!!
large diameter brick built pipe the largest i have seen
starting to get a bit more rocky underfoot
a large part of the drain had been spraycreted for extra strength
well i have seen some things down drains but a chandler ! wow thats a first lol
one pipe had been bricked up here for some reason
love the colours in this pic taken at the bottom of the staircase looking downstream
wow never seen anything like this before
at the top of the staircase 2 small pipes go under the penstock we followed the stairs up to the left
looking up the manhole steps there was a branch of to the right from reading other reports we knew this would lead us to the penstock control
climbing of the step irons we arrived in an L shaped small brick corridor
the penstock control in great condition now back down the way we came up
these steps lead you down to the 2 small pipes at the top of the staircase we diddnt go through these but opted to walk across the penstock itself
in to Inhospitable now it was very rocky underfoot
going downstream
after a bit of a slog the pipe widened here
before returning to its previous size the sound of gushing water was getting louder
this last section went down hill rather quickly and the flow gathered pace there was no safe way out here as its a drop at the end of the pipe hence hearing the gushing water earlier had to be careful not to slip as i would have been washed out on to the rocks below it was quite dodgy more than the pic suggests
stood very precariously near the end you can see the drop and what appear to be the ruins of an old mill of sorts , Dangerous this
coming back upstream back to the penstock
quite deep in places and hard going underfoot
other side of the penstock now going upstream you could see light at the end of the tunnel
an old almost keyhole shaped pipe branching of the main pipe this drain was packed with features
approaching the end but not before we encounter an under ground old bridge
