# Troon Way Storm Relief Drain (aka Buttonhole), Thurmaston, Leicester - July '15



## KM Punk (Jul 28, 2015)

Explored with a non-member

*History*

Following the Second World War, like many European cities, Leicester needed rebuilding. Being a major hub in hosiery and footwear, as well as being close to Birmingham, Coventry and Nottingham, Leicester took a battering. In the rebuilding of Leicester, improvements to the road system and more houses were made. At this time, Thurmaston was a village outside of Leicester, it is now more of a suburb.






_Melton Road, 1961_

In the 1950’s, a ring road was proposed. It was built in the early 1960’s and called the A563, or Troon Way on the section passing between Rushey Mead and Thurmaston. During the construction of Troon Way, a storm relief drain was built beneath after flooding and the construction of Thorn Lighting (Now a Sainsbury's). This takes excess water from Melton Brook(at the Humberstone Lane/Troon Way Roundabout) to the River Soar in Watermead Park.

It is a simple concrete design, about 1.2 miles in length with a diameter of 2.2m

*Explore*

We've been meaning to do this for 2 years, but never got round to it. In mid-June, we both agreed that this takes priority, and it still took 2/3 weeks for us to finally jump in.
I wasn't expecting much with it basically being a concrete pipe. I was pleasantly surprised by it's length, at times it seemed to never end, due to there being minimal manhole points.
Enjoyed this, glad we finally did it.

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Cheers for Looking​


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## krela (Jul 28, 2015)

Lots of interesting bits there, and some good photos too, thanks KM.


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## night crawler (Jul 28, 2015)

Good set of photo's, looks to go on forever


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## flyboys90 (Jul 29, 2015)

Great shots! an amazing amount of concrete.


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## KM Punk (Jul 30, 2015)

night crawler said:


> Good set of photo's, looks to go on forever


Felt like it as well




flyboys90 said:


> Great shots! an amazing amount of concrete.



Usually I don't like concrete drains. Brick is so much more attractive and impressive.
But the length of this and how dark it is when you're in there made it a cracking place to explore


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## DirtyJigsaw (Jul 31, 2015)

This is cool. I want to do my first storm drain


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## KM Punk (Aug 1, 2015)

DirtyJigsaw said:


> This is cool. I want to do my first storm drain



Do it. Nice challenge photo wise and hunting them down is quite rewarding aswel


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