Deep Silt, so called after it nearly sucked the leg off another explorer sometime in 2007, an explorer who went knee deep into the unknown filth. The bubbling sound escaping from the mud and peculiar smell in the air led three underground neophytes to abandon the explore on grounds of safety.
I returned alone this summer, determined to see what lay beyond the temple like chamber on the banks of one of Stockport's rivers. At the time of the initial explore I wasn't sure what this hand-carved sandstone tunnel was, at first I thought drain, but as I slowly made my way through this life-taker, every footstep was tested with a stick lest the ground beneath me disappear, I realised I was travelling downhill, away from the river.
I don't mind admitting, there was more than one occasion when I considered turning back, the bubbling mud, lack of any wildlife, the thigh deep sections of filth and dragging a semi-inflated dinghy like a dead weight, progress was slow, tiring and extremely hard work. The noticeable lack of any surface access troubled me too.
Section after section of knee to thigh deep mud greet the weary traveller until suddenly a huge chamber opens up, the silt has cracked and split leaving a Grand Canyon of dirt. It's after this point, the journey gets wet.
Up a stoopy RCP, half full of water I launched the dinghy, regretting the decision to not bring a paddle I pushed myself along the sides by hand and by stick until I reached 'The Crawl'. 18inches from the surface of filth to the roof, beyond which is a lake within a tunnel. A deep lake. And it goes on and on and on...
I traversed the quiet solitude of water, struggling to control my craft, spinning round reaching for the wall and generally heading in all directions at the same time until I reached an impass, where the water and the tunnel roof meet, so near, but so far, what lies beyond...?
Further research tells me this long-abandoned hypogean mystery was carved at the turn of the 18th century to carry water from the river to provide power to one of the many mills in Stockport, it was called Stringer's Tunnel.
In it's later life the CEGB (Central Electricity Generating Board) utilised the tunnel to carry cables from the nearby substation safely toward the town centre, from what I can gather it was the CEGB that were responsible for the tunnel being spraycreted. It was abandoned by them sometime after the 1960s but I haven't managed to track down an exact date.
Deep Silt. I'll get back in there and finish this one off. Sometime. Maybe.
Mendo
I returned alone this summer, determined to see what lay beyond the temple like chamber on the banks of one of Stockport's rivers. At the time of the initial explore I wasn't sure what this hand-carved sandstone tunnel was, at first I thought drain, but as I slowly made my way through this life-taker, every footstep was tested with a stick lest the ground beneath me disappear, I realised I was travelling downhill, away from the river.
I don't mind admitting, there was more than one occasion when I considered turning back, the bubbling mud, lack of any wildlife, the thigh deep sections of filth and dragging a semi-inflated dinghy like a dead weight, progress was slow, tiring and extremely hard work. The noticeable lack of any surface access troubled me too.
Section after section of knee to thigh deep mud greet the weary traveller until suddenly a huge chamber opens up, the silt has cracked and split leaving a Grand Canyon of dirt. It's after this point, the journey gets wet.
Up a stoopy RCP, half full of water I launched the dinghy, regretting the decision to not bring a paddle I pushed myself along the sides by hand and by stick until I reached 'The Crawl'. 18inches from the surface of filth to the roof, beyond which is a lake within a tunnel. A deep lake. And it goes on and on and on...
I traversed the quiet solitude of water, struggling to control my craft, spinning round reaching for the wall and generally heading in all directions at the same time until I reached an impass, where the water and the tunnel roof meet, so near, but so far, what lies beyond...?
Further research tells me this long-abandoned hypogean mystery was carved at the turn of the 18th century to carry water from the river to provide power to one of the many mills in Stockport, it was called Stringer's Tunnel.
In it's later life the CEGB (Central Electricity Generating Board) utilised the tunnel to carry cables from the nearby substation safely toward the town centre, from what I can gather it was the CEGB that were responsible for the tunnel being spraycreted. It was abandoned by them sometime after the 1960s but I haven't managed to track down an exact date.
Deep Silt. I'll get back in there and finish this one off. Sometime. Maybe.
Mendo
