# River Alt Culverts - Liverpool - April - 2012 -



## georgie (May 22, 2012)

*here are a selection of some culverted sections of the river alt.*

*a little bit of info regarding the river alt*

"The River Alt flows north east through Lancashire and Merseyside. It rises in Huyton township at the Hag Plantation, and flows through Croxteth Park, West Derby and Maghull, then flows out to the Mersey between Crosby and Formby. St Helens Gutter, as the Alt is known between Aintree and Maghull, was once the name of the Milldam (water supply) of Sefton Mill, once located near Sefton parish church.

The river flows through a channel created around 14,000 years by glacial ice which crawled south from the Irish Sea basin. The ice moved up the Alt channel, across the slightly higher ground which now makes up the north side of the Mersey, and down towards the Cheshire Plain along the channel of Ditton Brook. Ditton Brook and the Alt now flow back-to-back.

As the Alt flows towards the coast, it cuts a channel through a plain of allivium (river or wind deposited sand), mudstone and sandstone. At its mouth are the wide beaches and quicksand of the west Lancashire coast.

Along the banks of the Alt are a string of settlements with names suggesting a Viking origin (Huyton, Croxteth, West Derby, Knowsley, Aintree, Maghull, Formby). At one time, it may have been possible to bring boats as far as three miles inland up the Alt, and if so it would have been a convenient way for settlers to come inland to found new hamlets.

For generations, people have had to fight against the Alt flooding. The 1779 Alt Drainage Act followed the realisation that the Alt’s flooding was due to constantly changing course across its sandy flood plain. The word ‘Altmouth’ can be seen at, unsurprisingly, the mouth of the Alt on maps by both Caxton and Speed, on the south side as it empties into the Mersey. Although it has been suggested that this settlement has been swept away by the unpredictable movements of the river, there was never a ‘village’ symbol shown on any maps, and no evidence for such a village exists. Indeed, the area is still generally known as Altmouth today. However, those living on the banks of the Alt have had to contend with the high risk of flooding, and continue to do so today.

Today, the Alt valley, despite the flood risk, is a protected nature reserve, and 20 miles of embankments protect the farmland which lies either side."

*ive been sitting on this one for some time now ,and was going to leave posting it until we had explored another section that we found ,but tbh i dont think ill be back here anytime soon so ill post up what we done and probably add to this report at a later date.

they are pretty much boring concrete structures, but every hole is a goal and it was something new again to explore.
*
*explored with kevsy21*












*this was discharging some serious brown water.*























*mobile phone left lying around and up ahead kevsy21 getting attacked by midges.*







*
double tube culvert with a breezeblock wall seperating the 2 and overhead grill.*








*this is what it looks like from above*



































*midges galore.*










*further downstream it started getting silly with very deep water and serious welly breach also a few tampax floating in the water we cut it short not far from here.(we think the tampax came from 2 side chambers further down that were gated)*





*kev testing out the depth.*










*to be continued.........at some point....maybe*​


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## UE-OMJ (May 22, 2012)

Much respect for you guys who do that, you wont catch me down there though.

Was there a sim card/memory card in the phone? They can often survive a while in water, might be some good stuff on it.


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## georgie (May 22, 2012)

UE-OMJ said:


> Much respect for you guys who do that, you wont catch me down there though.
> 
> Was there a sim card/memory card in the phone? They can often survive a while in water, might be some good stuff on it.



cheers man yehh im not a huge fan of these places but curiosity gets the better of me sometimes

regarding the phone i just left it where it was i didnt see if it still had cards in it


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## flyboys90 (May 22, 2012)

Great post,but not for me think the white things with tails would put me off! thanks for sharing.


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## PaulPowers (May 22, 2012)

Brilliant I know Xan has been looking at these


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## King Al (May 22, 2012)

Cool pics n write up georgie, shame about the welly breach!


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## UrbanX (May 23, 2012)

Aww, wish my city had one of these 
Thanks for sharing, loved the pics and commentary.


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