We found ourselves in a drain on Saturday, it's a drain I had researched some time ago but never got around to taking a look at. It exists to channel the Bilston Brook under various housing and industrial estates, as well as being an overflow outlet for a number of sanitary sewers. Until very recently it would have had a considerably lengthy stretch of century old brick tunnel, but that has sadly been replaced by concrete box sections during development work over the past year, that'll teach me to drag my heels.
In essence the drain is comparable to, but more interesting than, Crystal Phallus in nearby Birmingham, and also like a mini version of Bunker in Warrington. With the older sections now renewed the entire length of the drain (just over two miles/more accurately 3.5Km) is thoroughly modern, of various pre-cast concrete forms with brick built junctions, access chambers and staircases.
We started out near the upstream end, where an overflow from a local fishing pond(flooded quarry) falls into the drain via a vertical drop of approx ten foot, four foot being an enclosed 3x6 slot with the remaining six foot open to the drain channel.
The Overflow - Joint Effort
We headed downstream first, we chatted, joked, rescued frogs, considered unblocking debris build up in a Guardian Draingels styley, and eventually reached the outfall where Sirenity's flow conjoins with a much smaller culvert and a sewer overflow outfall which was literally coughing out golden nuggets into an open watercourse that runs through a leafy valley, nice.
The downstream walk is long, but interesting, there are no real boring stretches, the drain twists and takes a lot of corners which are all brick built with access ladders, manhole shafts and small adjoining side pipes.
Corner Chamber - Joint Effort
Another Corner - JD
Although it is predominantly concrete box, varying in size from 4ff at the furthest upstream point we reached, to 7ft around centre and 6ft at the outfall, there are a couple of instances where pre-cast quarter pipe sections take the brook under railway lines in a circular pipe.
Circular pipe meets corner - JD
Looking into the same corner from the circular pipe - st00p
In many spots the land above the drain is still under development which places the access manholes on building sites and as such many of them do not have a cover in place allowing natural light to spill in, as in above pic.
Me in an access shaft that actually has covers, although one was partly open - st00p
I'm not sure where this next pic fits into the run of things, LOL.
Me sticking my head into a tiny side pipe - st00p
We took all our downstream pictures whilst re-tracing our route back to our entry point. The downstream two thirds were cool, quite small with no jaw dropping wow moments, but super chilled, enjoyable and photo friendly. From the pond overflow heading upstream was slightly more varied and I'd say more fun! As we walked the echo of the overflows crashing waters travelled with us, as it faded a new crashing noise took its place reaching our ears from some point up ahead of us. Excited we upped our pace a little in anticipation, we reached a corner where a drop of five brick steps turned out to be the source of the sound.
The steps - JD
Me loitering at the bottom - JD
Close by were another smaller set of steps that had helped to dupe us into expecting a rather more grand single feature.
The accomplice stairs - st00p
By now the concrete box had narrowed to about four and a half foot in width as it entered a junction chamber where it met a circular pipe. Much mineral encrustment on the walls and step irons here.
The Junction - st00p
The circular pipe had an enclosed sewer running along one side causing the main water channel to deepen and the resulting narrowed channel was an ankle crunching debris fest of a walk. Past this section the sound of crashing water once again entices you onwards and you're rewarded with a tall chamber housing a considerably larger set of steps.
The bigger step chamber - st00p
In this chamber an overflow on a sanitary sewer joins, far right, and poking your head through reveals the beginnings of potentially a whole new place to explore. So I'll close the thread with the most fantastical picture we took all day. LOL! Stuck the camera through the overflow to grab a flashed pic of the sanitary sewer, after 5 hours of wandering through relatively clean clean culvert I wasn't in the mood to get all poop covered.
Behold the awesomeness - camera
At the top of the stairs the main tunnel suddenly shrinks to a considerable stoop. We went on further, two corners further, in the hope that we'd be again be lured onwards by the sounds of booming water or the glimmer of something of interest in the distance, but alas the siren had ceased calling and we headed back to our exit. I loved this drain!
JD
In essence the drain is comparable to, but more interesting than, Crystal Phallus in nearby Birmingham, and also like a mini version of Bunker in Warrington. With the older sections now renewed the entire length of the drain (just over two miles/more accurately 3.5Km) is thoroughly modern, of various pre-cast concrete forms with brick built junctions, access chambers and staircases.
We started out near the upstream end, where an overflow from a local fishing pond(flooded quarry) falls into the drain via a vertical drop of approx ten foot, four foot being an enclosed 3x6 slot with the remaining six foot open to the drain channel.
The Overflow - Joint Effort
We headed downstream first, we chatted, joked, rescued frogs, considered unblocking debris build up in a Guardian Draingels styley, and eventually reached the outfall where Sirenity's flow conjoins with a much smaller culvert and a sewer overflow outfall which was literally coughing out golden nuggets into an open watercourse that runs through a leafy valley, nice.
The downstream walk is long, but interesting, there are no real boring stretches, the drain twists and takes a lot of corners which are all brick built with access ladders, manhole shafts and small adjoining side pipes.
Corner Chamber - Joint Effort
Another Corner - JD
Although it is predominantly concrete box, varying in size from 4ff at the furthest upstream point we reached, to 7ft around centre and 6ft at the outfall, there are a couple of instances where pre-cast quarter pipe sections take the brook under railway lines in a circular pipe.
Circular pipe meets corner - JD
Looking into the same corner from the circular pipe - st00p
In many spots the land above the drain is still under development which places the access manholes on building sites and as such many of them do not have a cover in place allowing natural light to spill in, as in above pic.
Me in an access shaft that actually has covers, although one was partly open - st00p
I'm not sure where this next pic fits into the run of things, LOL.
Me sticking my head into a tiny side pipe - st00p
We took all our downstream pictures whilst re-tracing our route back to our entry point. The downstream two thirds were cool, quite small with no jaw dropping wow moments, but super chilled, enjoyable and photo friendly. From the pond overflow heading upstream was slightly more varied and I'd say more fun! As we walked the echo of the overflows crashing waters travelled with us, as it faded a new crashing noise took its place reaching our ears from some point up ahead of us. Excited we upped our pace a little in anticipation, we reached a corner where a drop of five brick steps turned out to be the source of the sound.
The steps - JD
Me loitering at the bottom - JD
Close by were another smaller set of steps that had helped to dupe us into expecting a rather more grand single feature.
The accomplice stairs - st00p
By now the concrete box had narrowed to about four and a half foot in width as it entered a junction chamber where it met a circular pipe. Much mineral encrustment on the walls and step irons here.
The Junction - st00p
The circular pipe had an enclosed sewer running along one side causing the main water channel to deepen and the resulting narrowed channel was an ankle crunching debris fest of a walk. Past this section the sound of crashing water once again entices you onwards and you're rewarded with a tall chamber housing a considerably larger set of steps.
The bigger step chamber - st00p
In this chamber an overflow on a sanitary sewer joins, far right, and poking your head through reveals the beginnings of potentially a whole new place to explore. So I'll close the thread with the most fantastical picture we took all day. LOL! Stuck the camera through the overflow to grab a flashed pic of the sanitary sewer, after 5 hours of wandering through relatively clean clean culvert I wasn't in the mood to get all poop covered.
Behold the awesomeness - camera
At the top of the stairs the main tunnel suddenly shrinks to a considerable stoop. We went on further, two corners further, in the hope that we'd be again be lured onwards by the sounds of booming water or the glimmer of something of interest in the distance, but alas the siren had ceased calling and we headed back to our exit. I loved this drain!
JD
