Tinker Brook & CSO, Accrington

Visited By Ojay & AndyJ23UK.

Our 3rd successive trip to Accrington, and our 2nd installment of culverts & drains for the day.

After spending the first half of the day mooching upstream of White Ash Brook, we now started further upstream of the Tinker Brook and worked our way back downstream, really continuing where we had left off on previous visits.

After having walked above ground for some distance, we spotted our entry point. Access proved tricky due to it's location so we headed further upstream and climbed down there. It was a gruelling 600 yards back to the culvert, by this time my ankles needed a rest, and so did Andyj.

Before reaching the Infall, we had to climb down this rather slippy weir

once down, I took this quick shot, and we made our way back underground for the next couple of hours (well almost).

We carried on for some distance, suffering from CBA we didn't manage any piccy's of this first section.

Tbh same old same old... stonework, water, calcites, silt...FANNY PLASTERS & A SMELL OF FRESH? (HOLD ON A MINUTE).

I remember earlier whilst downstream of the White Ash Brook, where it joins the Tinker Brook that there was evidence of sewer overflow. I enquired with Andy as to if there was a CSO upstream... "Err, I think so".

Sure enough, after we made our way through the Outfall of the first section and managed to stumble 150 yards or so, there it was, the biggest f@@king Overflow I have seen.

Before you could say Step Iron's I was already up them and heading upwards to see what all the fuss was about.

Ahead was a large grille almost grinning at me, as I got closer it was locked, and no way of squeezing through either. I summonsed Andy for a closer look so we could go and try and find another way in.

As we looked through the grille we could both smell and hear the fresh. Also there was a processor above the main chamber, "reeto I need to find another way into this place, even if we get nothing else done today" - LOL.

How do I in CSO's

After dicking around for severeal minutes we climbed the fence and went in search of manholes. The first one we lifted was directly above the processor, now I was happy to climb down onto this and into the sewer, but Andy had different ideas.

Ok, better not be irresponsible AGAIN, so I climbed in and shone my torch about, over the far side appeared to be some ladders, "Andy ladders".

Off we went in search of liddage, after a bit of digging we managed to locate it. At this point Andy wasn't too enthusiastic about going down, I can't think why, maybe the fact that the last CSO we encountered started to overflow with us still inside it.

Anyway, down your ladders and In Your HoleZ I go to sniff some more shit and take a look around

Once inside there was a walkway between the processor and the sewer itself

Having looked over into the sewer I new I needed to get a closer look, there was a time I would have climbed down over the processor and in but not anymore, so out I went in search of more liddage.

Having scraped around for 5 minutes we uncovered a big heavy rusty manhole, it took some effort lifting it but I was soon in.

Once down you could see the combined sewer flowing out of this 5ft RCP,

and down through a 2ft channel below passing underneath the processor

I then hopped over the fresh and under the processor to follow the sewer downstream

it eventually disappeared under a disused penstock and through a 2ft RCP, I had no intention of going down that

You can even see the tide marks on the wall where this has recently filled to almost capacity.

I can only assume that this system is also used as a storm overflow, as the sewer isn't all that big in comparison to the vast size of the Outfall.

Either way You wouldn't want to get trapped in here if it did...

No way out through here, so back up the ladder for me

We then continued downstream, and wasn't long before we reached the next Infall

This was a bit of a stooper, and rocky as fook and started to get deeper and deeper to the point where it was a case of wad0r fail :(

Eventually the levels dropped, and we were now underneath the canal at this point

after around 400 yards the river split into two, in the form of concrete boxes

We chose the right hand side of the culvert and continued downstream until I spotted a curious hole on the left.

Andy informed me we were now below William Blythes Chemicals and that there was sluice controls etc above, but was a bit on top due to being a live site.

"Hmmmm, fuck it let's go take a look"

We climbed up some ladders into a plant room, and up some more ladders

Again there were another set of ladders up inside the fatory so off I went for a mooch about.

There appeared to be quite a bit of activity so back down we came and into the culvert as it was now getting late

Eventually we passed underneath the factory and we could see daylight the other side

At this point the concrete box joined up with the other section and ahead was a CMP to the Outfall

We climbed out of the Outfall and followed the river down between the factory's for around 800 yards before calling it a day and heading back to the car, man I was soaked!

William Blythes Chemicals

Despite 3 visits now, i still need to get back, as there is so much more to see.

Thanks for looking

White Ash, Culverts, Accrington

Visited By Ojay & AndyJ23UK.

What was to be our 3rd and final trip to Accrington to check out it's culverts & drains was clearly no means to an end.

For such a small town, there is more going on underground than overground, and it appears I still need to get my arse back sometime soon for more culverty action.

Our Journey started off at the section close to Tinker Brook where we finished off last time, we headed upstream of White Ash Brook, then headed back towards Tinker Brook to pick-up where we left off.

The weather was on our side today, no rain for two day's ensured the levels were reasonable. Keeping dry was another matter, as the hole in my waders widens even further :(

We followed White Ash as far as we could upstream, along the way through culverted sections of varying length and composition. The Brook appears above ground in a number of places, and was a fair old mooch.

There were a number of pitfalls along the way, including slippy as f@@k river beds, silt, ankle breaking debris & deep water in parts. Once again my waders took a hammering and no doubt soon will result in failure of epic proportions.

Once again Shouts to Andyj for his perseverence of my obsession with this place.

In your culverts.....

Thanks once again for looking :)

"Adrenaline Junkies Scale Tower"

Ojay/Millhouse/Doc-P...

"Danger stunt sparks warning"

"Three thrillseekers risked their lives by scaling Blackpool Tower" (LulZ)

Also shouts to Scott, SL, Gone & Appo for pulling this shit off too :)

Shatterproof Drain

Visited By Ojay & Woodburner & Previously Stepping Lightly.

Firstly credits to Mendoza & Bnugle for putting in a lot of research into this baffling system of shite, after much speculation about what this was I decided to go and sniff some more shit with Stepping Lightly about 6 weeks ago due to Bnugle being injured AGAIN (Only Joking B)...

Cue Stepping Lightly with his ability to lift the heaviest of liddage without grid keys...How the f@@k he does it I'll never know?

Once the manhole was lifted, there was a surge of fresh and warm air and the noise from below was something else. Again the 4 gas was deployed as this appeared to be yet another grim system of turds.

Anyway once down the ladder approx 14ft we were on a landing stage, the smell was horrific, but surprisingly the 4 gas was still reporting Oxygen levels at 20.5% and had only dropped slightly - Safe.

As I switched on the mighty Cree and pointed it downwards, we were both amazed at the size of the rapid flowing turd stream that was before us.

There were 3 sets of ladders down, so off we both went to see what the hell was going on down here....

After a quick mooch about we appeared to be in the Mother of all CSO's, crikey this is one big Temple Of Fresh!

Below was a HooJ trunk sewer (3.5m wide) with a raised concrete inspection path to each side (approx 3ft wide) with some of the finest rapid flowing nuggets I have ever seen.
WB says he saw a few overtaking each other....LOL.

Seperating either side of the trunk sewer was a set of raised metal barriers, a further 5ft in height with a narrower chamber each side acting as an overflow with a raised slotted underside to allow the sewer to overflow.

(It will be easier to follow once you see the pic's)

Once we climbed the final ladder down, (to the left of the CSO) immediately ahead of us was by far one of the largest oveflow pipes I have seen. Infact it was a 2.5m GRP (Glass Re-inforced Plastic) as opposed to the usual RCP. This was quite unique around these parts, and I for one have never experienced one like it before.

The first noticeable fetaure here was what I believe was to be once a chain, now it looked like a washing line draped in fresh (with the finest collection of spent bog roll, used johnnies, STD's & fanny plasters I have ever seen)!

At this point curiosity got the better of us so we clambered over the fanny plasters and into the unknown. What we should have been mindfull of that this was one big system, and mooching down an unkown overflow was probably not the best of ideas. Walking on glass was odd, it was slippy as hell and I felt like Tony Hawkes whilst skating down the first section, followed by 'Slipping Lightly' who fell right on his arse at the same point. (Not funny BTW).

We carried on down for some time before we arrived at a junction, with another GRP feeding in on the left and down a set of stairs and a rather large inspection chamber above. I did climb up and get a shot - SEE BELOW.

We then carried on for approx 10 more minutes, slippin' & Slidin' along the way, before we decided to call it a night and head back.

Fast forward 6 weeks and I was out and about with Woodburner (Agenda Drains). Having earlier re-visited 'IN MY SIGHTS' I decided to head back to SHATTERPROOF and sniff some more shit, besides I didn't fancy going solo.

Lifting the lid was jokes. WB - "This is some heavy ass lid, don't wanna loose my fingers thanks" LOL. Reeto my turn, a quick tug and it was soon open.
Again we were greeted by the overwhelming smell of fresh. The 4 gas was once again deployed and we both headed down as quickly as possible.

Once down I gave WB a quick tour and explained what a CSO was as this was his first time in a sewer overflow (way to go, and nuff respect for coming down here in the first place) :)

Even bigger respect and lulz for turning up in a bright white T-shirt, I suddenly felt over dressed for the occasion, even with the gloves I felt inferior.

With all the excitement I forgot about the ladder down to the other side of CSO, so we both ended up limbo'ing underneath to take a look and getting covered in all manner of shite.

We then headed over to the other side, and once again climbed over the fanny plasters & STD's into the 2.5m GRP overflow pipe.

To Quote WB "It went from pretty good grip, to fuck all grip, it was seriously ice-rink city", "could have done with skateboards down here".

Agreed, it was even worse than the last time I was in here.

After around 100 yds in, it became much easier to traverse. We then came to the first junction again with the inspection chamber and the 1M overflow on the left. As we continued down the overflow with the intention of finding the end (I now know where this is after checking the maps). WB started to feel a little un-easy, and tbh so did I after the recent incident with the Cavern CSO!

We agreed to go a bit further, but having realised that if the sewer filled up whilst we were down there, we would have no way out, and for a pipe to be 3.5M it must anticipate some serious flowage.

At this point the pipe incline levelled out, as it started to back up with what appeared to be surface water rather than foul.
We passed the point where S.L. and myself gave up last time, ahead the pipe curved to the right and gave way to a larger section of RCP which had the appearance of a large 'cheesegrater'. By this point the water got slightly deeper and appeared to be following us.

Ahead was another smaller inspection chamber with ladders approx 25ft to the surface, we stopped for a quick rest, took a few shots and pondered over whether we should continue. Having a pretty good idea of where the Outfall was, from an educated guess by Mendo we made an executive decision to call it a day and GTFO.

Pict0rs in Chronological Order

Above the CSO

Looking down into the 3.5M Trunk Sewer

at least a 6ft channel of arse soup

which flowed in from here

and out through here

Inside the CSO

Fanny Plasters FTW, it also doubled up as a luxury cleaner enabling me to wipe the fresh off my wellies

Inside the 2.5M GRP

Junnction, this is where the smaller 1M GRP (Culvert overflow) joins up with the 2.5M overflow

As well it serves as an inspection chamber

I climbed up and took this shot looking down, above were ladders to a surface manhole approx 25ft up

After quite a long walk, the pipe took a sharp right and changed composition into this larger section of RCP (Cheesegrater).

It continued ahead for around 100 yds, before there was another smaller inspection chamber, again with ladders approx 25ft to a surface manhole

Ahead the GRP continued, we went another 50 yds before calling it a day

Shouts to The New Mendoza, Bungle Stepping Lightly & Woodburner.

In My Sights Re-visited

Re-visited By Ojay & Woodburner.

Tonight WB headed on over to Manc to sniff some shit, so I decided to take him to see the 'shit tank' - I even wore gloves for the occasion.

I was only here 6 weeks ago with Stepping Lightly. HERE Since then the pikey's have been and stripped most of the ladders & railings out of the place.

"I fuckin' hate Pikeys"

Alternative access was required down the remaining ladders, which brought us to the inspection gantry 'in your shite'...

Once again I swapped the Aunties budgie in favour of the 4 gas just in case.

At this point WB was unable to make it down the remaining set of ladders to the walkway, which is roughly 35ft from the bottom of the tank, so he remained on the gantry, whilst I headed on down the ladder AGAIN to take some more shots, which was now draped with even more fanny plasters and STD's since the last visit.

Due to bad weather of late the tank had quite obviously filled to capacity in the last 72 hours, and I was now almost knee deep in raw turdage (yummy)!

I was lacking lighting bitch (Aka Woodburner), my manual shutter remote, and the rest of the lighting that WB had stored about 80ft up in his bag...Doh.

My plans were now thwarted to gain some better shots of this place, and due to the amount of poop particles in the air, with the only torch I had, managed to grab a couple of shit shots before we called it a day and GTFO!

Bottom of the shit tank

Fresh flowing through the bottom of the shit tank

Handrails...Soon to be removed by Pikey's

And lastly... In your gantry's

Biggup to Woodburner for accidently in Sewers, this place is real grim!!

I vowed to never go back here. Thanks for looking.