Fairground Attraction

Back in drainZ...

So it's been over 2 months since I went draining properly, I was at a loose end and decided to tick this one off the never ending list of shizzle.

First discovered by R1 in 2009, this place doesn't disappoint, with it's continual change in shape, size and composition, the place is a little belter!

There are one or two stoopy bits along the way, a large inspection chamber, an oldskool storm overflow chamber complete with cobbled floor and a junction where 2 sewer overflows intersect.

One small section requires some real effort and a spine of steel, but well worth the hassle to see it all.

Despite hearing that it was only a short drain (It wasn't), I persevered only to find an eventual shrinker, somewhere underneath and beyond the bus depot.

The return of solo draining...

Outfall

The first section was fairly stoopy and more like a scrap heap challenge with the amount of junk that had washed up.

You could practically build a car with the stuff strewn about in here.

After what seemed like an age, the tunnel shrunk to around 1.5M at this point.

I persevered upstream through another stoopy brick pipe, before it opened up to a newer section of RCP.

Although fairly boring, it did provide an adequate stretch for my back.

It soon gave way to a stone section of tunnel, complete with cobbled floor.

In the distance I could see a shaft of light, eventually approaching a large inspection chamber, the manhole had been pikey'd.

After another quick back stretch, I continued on upstream..

The stonework continued in the next stretch for around 200M before shrinking to under 1M, I had to practically crawl through this bit - NSFW.

I really do hate stooping, I'm getting far too old for this shit, BUT had I given up now I would have missed some real interesting features which lay ahead.

First up, this old overflow section, with disused sluice gate

Squeezing through the other side led into this oldskool storm overflow chamber, which had some modern additions, to allow inspection.

Ahead a 2.5M pill shaped tunnel presented itself, I could hear what sounded like a weir in the distance,

A short distance later was indeed a small weir

Looking back down from the other side

I climbed up and continued on, now bent double in a smaller 5ft RBP, the drain now decided to shrink again.

This section was fairly long and boring, eventually changing into a much more interesting mix of brick & stone in the form of this egg shaped tunnel.

A few hundred yards up, I got a whiff of fresh, smells like sewer to me.

..Sure enough 2 egg shaped sewer overflows intersected the main tunnel

A quick mooch up led to a 350mm pipe, behind which the sewer was inaccesible.

I doubled back and carried on upstream, I could now here traffic thundering above,

I only passed one manhole shaft, which was a good 25ft to the surface.

Eventually the egg shaped tunnel became a shrinker, to a point where I had gone as far as possible without now having to crawl the remainder.

Time to head back out