Got Wood, Heywood

Here goes...

Whilst I was laid up I did a fair bit of research into new stuff, some of which has paid off and I've already thrown pics here and there..

This place was no exception, I stumbled upon this place last year - A cluster of manholes and control kiosks in the Heywood area.

After a couple of daytime recces, the place was well travelled with human traffic, even at night the foot path seemed reasonably busy.

I put it on a backburner, until I recently saw some pics from ConcreteJungle and just knew it was connected to this place.

(Bugger this guy is on it and claimed it as 'Got Wood' fairplay)

All things aside I decided to give the place a once over anyway.

A night visit with my mate seemed like the best plan, our usual 'tools of the trade' were somewhat insufficent, so with a bit of improvising I managed to shift a lid and head on down whilst my mate stayed terraferma.

I had a quick poke around, took a few pics and headed home.. not happy with a rushed job or my initial pics really :(

The next morning I noticed my lens cap was missing, so assumed it had dropped off the night before.. Perfect excuse for a re-visit.

Due to the design of the entire system it's difficult to actually access one of the sewers for a proper look, but what we appear to have here is 2 trunk sewers with 3 overflows, or even a 3rd newer/mid level sewer ?

I delayed posting this, as I was planning on going back and roping down into the overflow to see whats what, but I simply haven't had the time or the inclination to bother!

The whole place has been revamped over the last decade or so with the addition of concrete and a further inspection chamber.

Despite additions over the years there is still evidence of the older brick system, although the original overflow has been bricked and replaced with a concrete dropshaft which eventually leads on down to the river.

I'll try and better explain it with some pics...

The upper sewer is accessible by roping down this manhole, which leads to a small storm tank upstream

Lifting another heavier lid, revealed some rungs down a 12ft shaft which which revealed a small screening chamber to which the upper sewer passed through.

When the sewer reaches capacity, it overflows both sides of the slots above it

(as seen in the picture below).

During normal flow the sewer passes over head through the 4ft concrete channel

A 10ft set of ladders draped with fanny plasters leads to the overflow below.

Ahead, the overflow continues over a 3ft concrete barrier

Before outfalling into another much older tunnel

Climbing out into the connecting tunnel, it was rather slippery, and it appeared to have recently overflowed after a solid week of heavy rain.

Here, evidence of re-inforcement as concrete had partially covered the much older brick tunnel

The noise was overwhelming as multiple sewers thundered by whilst making my way up the tunnel.

As I clambered over the chain I slipped in the fatty deposits and rolled into another much larger and older inspection chamber.

Constructed of blue brick, multiple ladders via a gantry led to a large bolted manhole above.

After climbing back down, I headed into a 5ft RCP, which marks the end of the connecting overflow.

A quick stoop leads through to a lower level Sewer & CSO/Screening Chamber, not very pleasant in here so I didn't hang around.

I headed back down the older connecting brick/concrete overflow tunnel which revealed a much newer and larger concrete drop-shaft.

(A good 15-20ft via 2 landings and 3 ladders to a large manhole above, which wouldn't budge!)

Running down one side of the shaft was a plughole type overflow, presumably from the much speculated '3rd mid level sewer'.

Here it is from the TOP

And looking up from the BOTTOM

I did plan to re-visit to see what lies beyond here, but so far simply haven't had the time..

At the end of the connecting tunnel, ahead of the final overflow is another shaft.

During capacity all 3 sewers discharge their load beyond the jam-rag pole in the picture below.

And down a further 10ft shaft

Below is the much older Outfall, which is quite deep and filled with arse soup (yummy!)

One day I will return to satisfy my curiosity...

Reeto,

..

.

.

Having been here a few times now, more recently with TheVicar I decided it was a good opportunity to stop being lazy and finally check out the 3rd, much newer overflow.

We know there are 2 trunk sewers that flow through here, but was there a 3rd?

After roping down the overflow from the mid level inspection chamber as in the BELOW PICTURE the mystery was finally solved..

Down we go

(pict0r by TheVicar)

The only way safely down was rope access, which led into a 4ft RCP around 100 yards it curved left and terminated into a medium sized screening chamber.

The noise was immense, as I soon discovered why when I climbed up onto the gantry which gave way to a 6ft RCP outfall into a 4m trunk.

As I suspected, there are only 2 sewers here.

This screening chamber has been added in the last couple of years to filter out the solids.

It's slightly up-stream of the high level sewer in the pic below (I had previously roped down further downstream through the rungless/ladderless manhole).

Massive shouts to TheVicar, nothing short of boring to most people I know, but I just had to satisfy my curiosity!