# Dunkin' Doe Nuts, Ebbw Vale, South Wales



## Jondoe_264 (May 26, 2008)

This Bank Holiday weekend I had plans for a trip to Manchester to visit family, my old school that is to be demo'd imminently and of course some drains. My travel plan scheduled in detours to pass through Ebbw Vale to investigate a culvert, and Stoke to check out the local known drains. As the day panned out I only got to Ebbw Vale, mostly due to having a crappy day which prompted the decision that my weekend would be better spent sleeping.

The Culvert in Ebbw Vale is along the River Ebbw Fawr, a stretch of just over a mile of the river was culverted in 1937 to accommodate expansion of the steel works. The tunnel was originally a brick lined concrete arch for its entire length. In places it has raised walkways on either side, in other spots only on the one side. It's a culvert that has seen much in the way of additions, alterations, patching up and general bodged connections which make it all together more interesting I'd say.






_Construction pic - 20 February 1937, © Ebbw Vale Archive Trust _

As mentioned above, most of the alterations have likely made this a more interesting drain to explore, but the one spot where I found myself wishing they'd left well alone was the infall. Previous to construction of the culvert the river entered the steel works site immediately after passing under the roadway that borders the entire site. The border road passed over the river via a bridge of limestonestone construction and the culvert was built up to the bridge creating an impressive infall. The re-lining work that took place in the 80s covered over the bridge. In one awkwardly angled corner at the infall a vertical slither of limestone blocks has somehow escaped being entombed and its texture and form are in contrast with the surrounding concrete.





_Just inside the culvert, looking back to the infall._

When the culvert was re-lined some sections were entirely replaced with concrete box section, for most of its length the arch itself was simply concrete lined while an entire section around its mid point was left in its original state. It's a patchy weird smorgasbord of construction jumble that is quite unique in its untypically English appearance.





_Not far in the culvert drops down a small slide into the arch_





_From the top of the slide looking into the arch_

The steel works ceased production in July 2002 and demolition began in August of the same year. The site is still being cleared and made fit for re-development which has some effect on the culvert. Side pipes that would have drained parts of the site have been clumsily back filled with concrete and masonry debris which has fallen into the main tunnel causing blockages and general annoyance under foot. In some spots new drainage has been badly connected to the culvert in a manner that leaves it looking as if the RCP has just burst through the culvert wall, other section see runs of missing access covers.





_A missing cover lets in the daylight_





_A new drainage connection or two_

Beyond the box section that can be seen in the background of the above pic the pipe suddenly reverts to its original unlined state. Throughout the length of this original section a redundant steel sewer pipe runs along one side sitting on right angle brackets set into the wall and floor. It's quite bizarre that this stretch was left unlined, bizarre but great as you go from the relatively clean and orderly concrete arch into nicely aged red brick. It's at about this point that I noticed that lighting had been installed in the pipe, not your usual temporary construction type lighting but fluorescent ceiling units, I did find a switch but it was already plain that these things were not going to operate.





_The start of the unaltered section, the sewer pipe is open at both ends and so is now a dis-used isolated run of pipe._





_Further downstream, looking upstream, a washed out section of floor causing turbulent waters_

Although this original section was the most fun part of the explore, if the drain had been entirely original I suspect it wouldn't have been quite so much fun. From the point of the last pic for some distance downstream was a run of steel I beams set into the upper portion of the arch, they seemed suitably corroded and aged to be contemporary with with section, the steel works site was criss-crossed by rail tracks and so one guess is that this section was further braced in this manner where it passed under rail lines.





_The braced section_





_The switch, back to concrete. The open end of the sewer pipe clearly visible and the ceiling lights continue._

Another thing that I noted can be seen in the pic above. The older unaltered access shafts most had ladders of steel bars set into one corner of the shaft, that's not something I've seen that much of in English drains, may be it's a Welsh thing? By this point I'd been walking for quite sometime, I'd fallen over at least twice and gotten pretty well drenched from the waist down. My waders were chaffing, my legs aching, my resolve diminishing . . . I figured I'd now have a pretty short uneventful walk to the outfall, I was right but for one more random feature. Shinning the torch off down the tunnel there seemed to be something odd going on up ahead, but I couldn't really hear anything in the way of crashing waters from side pipes, and I couldn't quite make out the feature from way off. It was really only as you got right on it that you realised what was going on, a short section of tunnel opens up in a much taller and wider arch, of the original brick construct, I'm sure there's a good reason.





_The random big arch, looking upstream_

This drain had turned out to be way way more interesting than I'd imagined it might be and it wasn't quite done. Still heading downstream a long slow curve gave way to a steady slide that sent the waters shooting down it at pace. I managed to send a great jet of water all over my gear, which was propped against the wall, when I accidentally stumbled forward and set foot in the flow right by it. 





_The pre-outfall slide_

From here it was just a couple more smooth bends to the outfall. As I approached I could hear crashing water and passed the last bend to see the outfall with a pipe someway up the wall sending water falling to the river. After a long while underground (5 hours) the outfall was quite a sight, the blazing midday sun shone through the new spring leaves and cast a green glow over the scene. The falling water splashed and shimmered as two mallards flew in and landed on the relatively still water just beyond the outfall.





_From just inside the culvert, looking to the outfall_

Now it had been a much longer detour than I'd thought, I was soaked and pretty beat. I'd been taking pictures the entire way through but had been feeling like I hadn't managed to get anything that was really useable to illustrate the place. I walked back to the car, chaffing more than ever, sweating, looking decidedly English I'd imagine! By the time I reached the car I'd decided that I was going to head home, a shame as I'd been looking forward to this trip for a while, but I was so knackered I'd have probably spent my time in Manchester sleeping. I headed home, a three hour drive, and am making plans to get back to Manchester just as soon as finances allow. 

Oh yeah ,the name in case you didn't realise is relatin gto my multiple instances of getting wet.

JD


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## ThenewMendoza (May 26, 2008)

Great stuff, your pictures make me sick, in a good way  **note to self, buy more lights...**

Your old school wouldn't be the one near Red Barn by any chance? Went past today, travellers on the playing field...

TnM


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## Jondoe_264 (May 26, 2008)

ThenewMendoza said:


> Your old school wouldn't be the one near Red Barn by any chance? Went past today, travellers on the playing field...
> TnM



Yeah, on Broadway, Radclyffe School. I'm not all that interested in it as a building, but for the nostalgia trip it would be a head spin. Hope to see it before it's gone.

JD


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## ThenewMendoza (May 26, 2008)

Jondoe_264 said:


> Yeah, on Broadway, Radclyffe School. I'm not all that interested in it as a building, but for the nostalgia trip it would be a head spin. Hope to see it before it's gone.
> 
> JD



That's the one, all boarded up securely at the minute.

Mendo


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## Sabtr (May 26, 2008)

Very nice! I've done concrete culverts before but you just can't beat red brick! It's very interesting how the culvert constantly changes. There must have been a good reason for it? I think where the roof opens up higher and wider with brick showing could have been an original bridge over the river before it was covered over?


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## phill.d (May 26, 2008)

Cracking set of pics Jon. Nicely narrated too. It's a real mish mash of sorts down there with strip lights for good measure


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## johno23 (May 26, 2008)

Brilliant well lit pictures and quite an interesting place due to all its changes over the years,great write up too,very informative


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## Foxylady (May 28, 2008)

Excellent stuff and great pics as usual, JD. Doesn't the new concrete pipe look horrible against all the gorgeous original brickwork! Love the rest of it though. Jeez, you drainor guys have got stamina!


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## MonkeyGirl (May 28, 2008)

Top stuff! Love to visit this one


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## King Al (May 28, 2008)

As always excellent pics and write up JD. Lots oddities in there like the lights and the shot of the new drainage Pipe


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## LittleMike (May 28, 2008)

Foxylady said:


> Excellent stuff and great pics as usual, JD. Doesn't the new concrete pipe look horrible against all the gorgeous original brickwork! Love the rest of it though. Jeez, you drainor guys have got stamina!



tbh, I quite like the contrast, it reminds me a lot of shafted in Telford in that respect





Nice to see something finally come out of Wales. I got a couple of other really quite obvious leads there but no chance I'll get down any time soon sadly.

Really top shots though, very nice. Great to see that you're back underground. Is this a permanent return to the wonders of the draining underworld?


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## Jondoe_264 (May 28, 2008)

LittleMike said:


> Is this a permanent return to the wonders of the draining underworld?



Permenant in the sporadic sense yes, YES IT IS!  I could never stay away from drains for very long. 

Where you been at btw?


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## Foxylady (May 28, 2008)

No, I didn't mean that one, Little Mike. I meant this... 


Jondoe_264 said:


> _A new drainage connection or two_


The difference between the connecting pipe and the rest of it.


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## LittleMike (May 28, 2008)

Tired unproductive days at work are slowly sapping my willingness to explore mid week and I'm busy at the weekends for a while unfortunately. Still, me and ddt have got something new (abit small) in leeds and as always we got some more bradford to check out. It's the never ending story!

That reminds me, you need to get your ass up north sometime! I want to get back to pipemare urgently


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## NobodyGirl (May 28, 2008)

Jondoe_264 said:


> _A missing cover lets in the daylight_



Looking like Sam Fisher cradling an AK47 or something there. Awesome!


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## sheep2405 (Jun 2, 2008)

Hey, after taking a little look at this little beauty and getting advice from JD, myself and Roops a new noob took a look at this place, the rain was coming down very hard but decided to go in any how. 

Excuse my pics they are not as good as JD's and next time I go I will take more gear to enhance what I love.

Here are a couple from inside, as you can see with mine the water level is a lot deeper and flowing a lot faster than JD's pics, but you could still walk in it.






















About half way through we noticed a passage way, and these let to a set of stairs going up to a man hole cover.






Just a little after this we decided to get out as the water was getting a bit too much so we went up the next man hole cover. We opened it up and we were in the middle of the old steel works that had been flattened, So basically in a year or two you will be able to pop in the middle of either a new housing development or a shopping centre.






Sheep


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## Jondoe_264 (Jun 2, 2008)

NobodyGirl said:


> Looking like Sam Fisher cradling an AK47 or something there. Awesome!



Now that's the kind of comparison I can cope just fine with  






Glad you went to check it out Sheep, sounds like you might have put your n00b off drains a little? I'll be very interested to hear what the score is with the other two sections upstream and downstream  I did climb out by the station btw, and it was a son of a bitch.

JD


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## sheep2405 (Jun 2, 2008)

God no he is well up for it, we are going to check out the other sections up and down stream next weekend will let you know what they are like. I have found a couple more that I will tell you about as well when we have a nosey at them.

S


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