# Accrington, the new king of culvertry!



## LittleMike (Jul 20, 2008)

Seeing the report on No Culvert For Old Men in Blackburn prompted me to have another look around that area of the country, seeing as up till now I had focused most my efforts on Manchester and Yorkshire.

Sure enough a brief search for the two main criteria for guaranteed culvertry (Steep valleys and a good industrial history) threw up a brand new draining town, Accrington! Nestled right at the confluence of 3 main watercourses, there had to be something good, so off I drove with the usual overly optimistic list of 11 culverts to look at.

Upon arriving I was disappointed to find that the outfall of the main drain was still absolutely steaming after the thunderstorm that had occurred during the night. But confident that the water levels would drop I first checked out a culvert further upstream.

Flowrider (yes lame name I can't think of anything else) is a short 400m culverted section of Woodnook Water (that's the name of the stream) on the outskirts of the town. The height difference between infall and outfall is quite dramatic, and the drain contains no steps or waterfalls so the gradient is somewhat insane for a drain. Thankfully the floor is quite grippy, otherwise you'd be saying your sweet goodbyes the moment you step inside.





This is actually on the way out, after the water level had dropped considerably. When I went in it was completely impossible to stand in this spot




The tunnel continues as a steep, mostly stoopy stone/brick arch before finally changing to a more modern concrete box type. Small holes in the ceiling for the entire length of this section let light pour in. It reminded me of an art gallery





By the time I had got out the water levels had dropped quite substantially so I went to check out a bigger culvert on the Accrington Brook/River Hyndburn (depending on which map you look at). The tunnel is pretty decent size, about 9-10ft tall and double that in width, but sadly after only a couple of hundred meters I reached the base of a waterfall where the water was too deep to continue. I didn't bother checking the upstream section as it is almost certainly the same as the rest.




This was pretty much the only other interesting thing in there so I'm just calling it "My Shop"





By now I had wasted loads of time waiting for the water to kindly ^%&* off so it was getting a bit late. I decided to check out a 700m culverted section of the Warmden Brook (Calling it the Warmden Grotto as I'm completely lacking in any sort of name inspiration this weekend). The day wasn't going too badly, but I wanted to find something a bit more interesting and I wasn't disappointed!

The drain starts off as a nice 7ft arch. It really is quite beautiful, with a cobbled floor, stone sides and a perfect circular red brick arch to cap it off. Also of note is that although the floor is made from stone, it is still in perfect condition and not completely torn up unlike other northern drains!




Ahead a loud roaring noise gets louder and louder. The drain drops down a short slide, opening it up by another foot or so before reaching a beautifully crafted 7ft waterfall with a plunge pit at the bottom. This is the sort of stuff dreams are made of...well...my dreams anyway 




Defeated by the lack of any ladder, and a pool of unknown depth at the bottom, I headed back to the car for some classic backbreaking sleep.


The following day the sky shone bright blue, success! I had to go see the bottom of the waterfall from the previous night so I headed straight over to the outfall and headed in.

Well, I expected pretty much a standard arched tunnel the whole way, just leading to the base of the falls. How naive, the d/s section is even better! After a short 5ft commitment the drain opens back up again and things start to get interesting. The next 200m or so is made up of an array of waterfalls and miniature slides, some man-made, some just carved out from bare rock.

I then passed a particularly awesome section where the old rocky river bed has simply been capped with the brick arch and no work done on the floor at all. You have to climb over the original rocks that once would have been on the surface. Lots of photo chances there but I didn't get round to taking any. Just a short way on the drain reaches it's max height at about 13ft at the base of yet another small waterfall.




At the top of the waterfall the shape suddenly changes to a nice 9ft RSP. Yes you read that right, round stone pipe! Crazy drain.




This continues for a short way before reaching the base of the falls that I had seen the previous night.


I could easily have spend a few days down there taking photos, it's one of the most photogenic places I've ever been, but there was other things to explore so I headed back downstream to the infall for the main drain beneath the town - Superlative Nomenclature (I haven't been influenced by DDT's silly drain names, honistly)

Well this is the main reason I came to Accrington in the first place, it looked great on the map, 3 rivers merging underground (Woodnook Water, Warmden Brook and Pleck Brook) to form a new watercourse, the Accrington Brook/River Hyndburn (u/s of My Shop). Sadly, in reality the drain isn't as interesting as I'd expected, and a bit of a disappointment after the Warmden Grotto, just a stone/brick arch for most of it's length.

The Pleck Brook, which also joins in from the side turned out to be a 6ft rcp, shrinking to a rather uninspiring 4ft concrete oval. It runs for about 1km according to the map, but I wasn't in the mood for stooping just in case it might open up (no DDT around to push me down silly pipes!)






At this point my torch began to give up, randomly dying without warning. A sharp knock usually got it going again, but it wasn't really my ideal setup so I headed home. (I'm beginning to think fenix's might be a bit overrated? This is the second one I've got through in 6 months, excluding the one I left on a pavement)


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## ThenewMendoza (Jul 20, 2008)

Looks great, lol at the RSPs. Some marvellous pictures there, shame about the torch though, ever considered you're working them too hard?? 

Mendo


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## BigLoada (Jul 20, 2008)

What can I say, just WOW. Wicked write up as usual and stunning pictures. Accrington looks like the place to be this summer. And I do love the drain names, they rock


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## smileysal (Jul 20, 2008)

ooooooooooooooooh love that brickwork and stone work in there. Excellent find. love the colours in there. Light the art gallery part lol. I'd want to have people posing under those holes lmao (or maybe thats just me? )

Excellent pics, really like this.

 Sal


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## LittleMike (Jul 20, 2008)

smileysal said:


> ooooooooooooooooh love that brickwork and stone work in there. Excellent find. love the colours in there. Light the art gallery part lol. I'd want to have people posing under those holes lmao (or maybe thats just me? )
> 
> Excellent pics, really like this.
> 
> Sal



Haha, yeah I did try standing under them, but it really needs someone under each one to be effective. Would be class to have some comedy statue type poses


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## CHEWY (Jul 21, 2008)

i've been looking at one in Accrington on google earth.
i'm only up the road .
i wonder if it's the same one ?


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## Kaputnik (Jul 21, 2008)

Looks like you've found some great places there, mate, and i love the pics and the way you've lit them.
what's the light you use that is attached to the wall in a couple of your pictures?
must get the waders wet on a few places like this soon!


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## Bunk3r (Jul 21, 2008)

absolutely stunning. 

as for the torch, try unscrewing the head and tailcap and cleaning the threads then relubricating them (silicon grease is best). An other thing that can happen is: in the tailcap the is a part screwed in holding the switch make sure that is tight (stick something in the two holes and tighten). If that doesn't do it the switch would be the next likely culprit, if the torch works when you take the tailcap off and 'short' the battery -ve to the bare metal on the body/tube with something metal but doesnt work with the switch then you know that the problem is there. if it turns out it needs more than just a clean, warranty it!


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## Sabtr (Jul 21, 2008)

Nice.  There seems to be plenty to do in Accrington. It's great when a bit of research throws up something new.
I particulary like the section of culvert which I would describe as "raw". An original river bed with a tunnel built over it. Marvelous! Keep these sites coming please!


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## LittleMike (Jul 21, 2008)

Kaputnik said:


> Looks like you've found some great places there, mate, and i love the pics and the way you've lit them.
> what's the light you use that is attached to the wall in a couple of your pictures?
> must get the waders wet on a few places like this soon!



It's a mini-fluoro. They are about £7 each, but eat up 8AA batteries a go. I would recommend the 4W version instead which kicks out only a little bit less light but only needs 4 batteries and is a lot lot smaller



Bunk3r said:


> absolutely stunning.
> 
> as for the torch, try unscrewing the head and tailcap and cleaning the threads then relubricating them (silicon grease is best). An other thing that can happen is: in the tailcap the is a part screwed in holding the switch make sure that is tight (stick something in the two holes and tighten). If that doesn't do it the switch would be the next likely culprit, if the torch works when you take the tailcap off and 'short' the battery -ve to the bare metal on the body/tube with something metal but doesnt work with the switch then you know that the problem is there. if it turns out it needs more than just a clean, warranty it!



Cool, I'll give that a go. On my other fenix the head appears to be broken somehow. I tried it with a different body but it just wouldn't turn on at all. Maybe it also needs just a bit of maintenance!


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## LittleMike (Jul 21, 2008)

Bunk3r said:


> absolutely stunning.
> 
> as for the torch, try unscrewing the head and tailcap and cleaning the threads then relubricating them (silicon grease is best). An other thing that can happen is: in the tailcap the is a part screwed in holding the switch make sure that is tight (stick something in the two holes and tighten). If that doesn't do it the switch would be the next likely culprit, if the torch works when you take the tailcap off and 'short' the battery -ve to the bare metal on the body/tube with something metal but doesnt work with the switch then you know that the problem is there. if it turns out it needs more than just a clean, warranty it!



Cheers for that, I tightened the switch in the tailcap and that fixed it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's also solved the "inflating switch" problem that I've also been having lol

Other one seems completely fubar, will get round to sending it back one of these days!


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## Gibbo (Jul 21, 2008)

All great pics, but I love this one:


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## Bunk3r (Jul 21, 2008)

LittleMike said:


> Cheers for that, I tightened the switch in the tailcap and that fixed it.


 nice one!



LittleMike said:


> I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's also solved the "inflating switch" problem that I've also been having lol


is that when the switch boot seems to balloon out? Ive noticed that on mine once before on a long run, I think its a case of the batteries letting gas out as they are used up, i dont think its a problem, if it bugs you just loosen the tailcap to vent it and let it go down (then tighten up again). at least a positive pressure held inside shows its very well sealed!


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## dsankt (Jul 21, 2008)

Fancy smanchy indeed.


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## LittleMike (Jul 21, 2008)

Bunk3r said:


> is that when the switch boot seems to balloon out? Ive noticed that on mine once before on a long run, I think its a case of the batteries letting gas out as they are used up, i dont think its a problem, if it bugs you just loosen the tailcap to vent it and let it go down (then tighten up again). at least a positive pressure held inside shows its very well sealed!



I'm pretty sure it's air expanding inside from the heat as it only seems to happen when it's on full power (and it happens every single time I have it on, using rechargeable batteries so it can't be the batteries unless they contain unlimited gas!)
In any case it's still happening. Just really annoying as it only has to be on for about 5 mins before it balloons enough for the switch to be unusable. Think I might put a small hole in the end to vent it. If it's small enough I guess it should let the air out without letting water in, provided it isn't submerged for any period of time.


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## LittleMike (Jul 21, 2008)

OK, just for anyone planning to do Warmden Grotto, be VERY careful at the first waterfall when heading upstream from the outfall. Keep right up against the right hand wall, when you get to the bit where two 1-2ft square tunnels come in the floor disappears. There is a sort of ridge below the water surface that you can shimmy along to get to the rhs of the waterfall and climb up. I nearly trapped/destroyed my ankle at this bit so be careful!

I would highly recommend a stick/long tripod for testing the floor in all Accrington drains as the water is a deep brown opaque colour presumably from high peat content. This makes it impossible to see the floor in a lot of places and it does have a tendency to suddenly disappear at the base of waterfalls etc. 


This is a nice construction photo of Superlative Nomenclature, 1954


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## orangeacid (Jul 22, 2008)

Cool report, evidently there's a lot more to see down drains than you'd expect


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## Lightbuoy (Jul 22, 2008)

Another great drain explore LM 

Love the construction material used for this one too.
Thanks for that old photo -always good to see how these drains were constructed.

Lb:jimlad:


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## natalion (Jul 22, 2008)

Woah, youve documented the whole thing really well. And you have some amazing photos... and there i was thinking things like this were boring.

Looks really fun and interesting!


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## Inverness_TMD (Jul 24, 2008)

I find it amazing the quality of the work put into some of these drains and tunnels, when you consider that hardly anyone gets to see the result!
If it wasnt for an overactive imagination then I'd probably give it a go!!


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## NobodyGirl (Jul 24, 2008)

just satisfied my need to see good underground pictures. I'm desperate to go somewhere underground soon, I miss it! My wellys are at the ready!


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## MotionSickness (Jul 25, 2008)

NobodyGirl said:


> just satisfied my need to see good underground pictures. I'm desperate to go somewhere underground soon, I miss it! My wellys are at the ready!



I miss that too, that first culvert we went down was awesome. what say we explore soon NG?!


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