Dragons Tooth, Manchester

11 hours and counting...

My day of draining continued, and after a couple of fails and much driving/walking about I headed back to a place I had once recced for a closer look.

Last time I was here it was dark and quite sketch so I figured it would be best attempted during the daylight.

The first thing that hits you here is the smell, like most CSO's there is usually some vapoury fresh lingering about, but this was another stinker!

Sorry to disappoint, but no dragons in here,

 just brown trout and enough lady towels to soak up the entire sewer should they end up back in..

Covered by a 3m grille draped in fanny plasters which appeared to be grinning at me, 

there didn't appear to be an easy way in

Luckily a manhole above had been pikeyed,

 so I quickly dropped in and headed up the 4ft square overflow

Further in,
 an impressive staircase which stretched into the distance

(It was very long & st00py, the picture doesn't show the scale here)

Once up, a small chamber shrinking to a 3ft RCP, which elevated and curved off to the right

It was quite slippery, and getting up was jokes,

 once up I had to squeeze past this jam rag infested catch chain

Ahead was the overflow weir,

 it was filthy and full of crap so I scrambled up into the CSO chamber where it was much cleaner

As I shone my torch in to watch the turds, there was a loud noise followed by a sudden surge.

Within a few minutes the level had risen a good 2ft which wasn't good considering there had been no rain..

No time to change the underpants I sat it out and continued to watch the flow, eventually it subsided, then within 5 minutes the process repeated itself.. Phew!

There must be some kind of detention tank/syphon upstream which fills and releases ?

CSO Chamber, from Left to Right

GTFO Manhole

Stairway to fresh AIR

I spent more time in drains than United Utilities by the time the day was done, haha

11 hours of solo draining, I'm f00ked, soaked, covered in crap, anti-vandal paint, cut to shreds by brambles and full of thorns, I've destroyed a pair of wellies in the proceedings.... Showertime and cold beer!