The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct Drained & Exposed - The Secrets down below

[Music] the bonil aqueduct bring in pleasure a and even fear to boat users and top paath users alike for well over 200 years setting beautiful Countryside 126 ft High to its most tallest point across the river D in the valley but what if the water was removed what would it look like deep within the belly of the aqueduct when maintenance happens and inspections occur I'm going to take you down and have a look inside this glorious feat of [Music] engineering [Music] hello welcome back to a brand new video where today we've got Martin we've got Roy and we've got the pka cilty Aqueduct right above us construction started way back in 1795 can't remember that can we you can but it was open 10 years later 1805 designed by Thomas Telford and it was 18 archers there were four peers down in the river that's the river D down there but back in 2011 I was fortunate enough to take a narrow boat across this it was quite a daunting experience I walked across it the year before and I always said I've never take a boat across it it's just too scary petrifying there's no fencing on the narrow Boo the canal side so I came back in 2011 took the boat over but this time it's different this time it's empty there's no water in there they're doing maintenance and repair is and we're going to walk in the trough going to walk in the trough we're going to go all the way across talk the trough it's a highlight of our life oh I love a got trough so further Ado we'll get up the top we're all going to do a video Martin's Channel Roy you do stuff photos photos and stuff and also myself let's go walk the pon silly Aqueduct Martin's gone he's been so excited all day [Music] [Music] [Music] so what happens here they put the stock planks in one by one and I believe they get up to six men to sometimes stand on them to force them in and they use a bit of an old school method they use ash like what you get in a steam locomotive and that is used as like a sealant and it gets sucked in and then fills in any cracks to stop any water look at that there's not a single bit of seepage coming through any of them so we just been stood up there that is where the stock blanks are where there's no water and there is water on the opposite side we stood underneath the very first span these 18 of these spans all the way across four of them four of the bases are stood in the river D that's where the peers are apparently 11,000 bolts along the entire iron section of the aqueduct so with 18 spans that's just over 600 bolts per span that doesn't sound enough in my head but it's got to be cuz it's been stood here since the 1700s so on each of those struts just there you've got 14 bolts there's 10 of them per span that's 140 all the way across and then you've got both sides that's 280 and then you've got those that attach themselves to the actual stone workor and also lower down so you can see where the 610 roughly bolts per span comes from they soon add up and you can kind of understand why the figure isn't a lot higher coming down now down the steps into the belly of the Beast down over 5 ft this is how deep this is and you can see if you was on a narrow boo you'd be up here but you'd be stood around about there so you'd be then again about 5 5 1/2 ft higher than that this is usually supposed to be emptied every 10 years I think they're a bit behind on this one so it's around about 20 years since it was last drained and worked on and I think there enough work to be done on it that they coulding back in about about 3 years to do it again but right now we've got this to look forward to look over there the entire span 326 ft in length 12T wide and at the highest point 126 ft High over 18 [Music] spans [Music] so what we've done we've walked all the way through and you might be thinking well we're not see anything yet but that's because we've come to the other end you see that narrow boat up there there look at that how long has that boat been there waiting waiting for this to refill so it could come across going to walk all the way back through now and there's one thing that I'm going to show you halfway along is the plug hole down in the bottom where they used to drain the water out it was pumped out this time and they got all the fish out safely before that I'd like to add but the plug hole is being worked on to make it operational again so that is something to look out for halfway across so leaving the stop planks before walking down down there but look how deep it is just here look how high up to my Wellies that is now what we're going to look out for you can see these little beams going across those little flanges they're all bolted and they're little sections across the aqueduct so there's the temporary gate and the barrier just there you got to think that barrier was put there for when the water was still in here to stop the boats going across when work began so the depth of this is I believe 5T and 3 in and you might think well it's made of raw time why does it look like concrete this is just where it's dried it's like all the mud and the silk but this that is most definitely made of iron see on this side that looks like Railway sleepers doesn't it it's made of wood it's supported by these iron stanions now the foot path the toe path on this side was originally made of wood but that didn't last very long and it was turned into the metallic one that we see today supported by these little stilts going upwards and they go in a kind of a cber look look at that now you've also got all these bolts down here look remember me telling you 11,000 bolts soon adult don't [Music] [Music] they so we just talked about the tail path but what I'm curious to know is what these are and they go all the way along and to help us answer that question we're going to ask project manager Mark what these are for basically these were part of the old design cuz this originally the toe path was actually wooden so it was primarily designed for horses so no um human traffic used to go across because obviously single-handed did horse going across barging used to stay on the barge and this is a strap that came down that all the all part of the wooden so over the period of time you know when we've gone through different things this is still all original but there was wooden struts and wooden boarding all the way along there now uh recently you look underneath they've now put steel plates and everything so this part and part these are now steel plates we've expanded above that is then Stone and then we put a time out what we're looking to do is going back to the original and possibly putting something that would have been used like a blue blue brick uh and replacing the TAC with something even better you can see the railings on top and the toe path and this is what most of you are used to walking on when you go across and back in 2010 I came here and visited it and I bought my daughter across it and she was only really small and walked across it and when you see this side there is absolutely no fencing there is no railings it's just this cast iron top curly it's got holes in there as if it was designed to put railings in but it never happened let just get your over there and you might be able to see them look at them look at that drop down 126 ft if you look at it the holes are actually in there and they just put them in there there never there's no ever records that we can show that it was a handrail put on this side right [Music] m [Music] so what I'm below here you have a look is a drainage section look so obviously it rains when it comes down but the water can't collect on there so what it's going to do it's going to fall down into the canal some of it will go over the edges on both ways but it's got to escape and rather than it just settle and it will just drop down into the water below there are sections look see that line going up there it's a straight line just there and then it comes down at another angle it's almost like a giant piece of Toblerone got some narrow boo fenders just there look two of them together so they've dropped off they've snagged on there at some point haven't they if they've been maybe hanging too low and they've been ripped off you still got the Rope just there don't parking footage so there's water coming out of this look and it's because they're going to do some work around where where the plug hole is look at it coming out so what we're going to do now is walk down to where the plug hole is and I'm going to show you the work that's going on I I'll CHS [Music] [Music] stand [Music] so we're way past the halfway point now and we've crossed over where the river deers you should have just seen that a moment ago you can see we still got water all around but it is about to turn dry look at this and we'll be able to see those bolts are heck of a lot clearer as we we head off towards Trevor Basin let's look at the size of them absolutely humongous all the way through some of them are going to be 200 years in age and some of them are going to be relatively recent like 20 years old all the way across it's another one of those from the old to [Music] just [Music] [Applause] [Music] now momentarily I'm going to show you what it looks like you get a better perspective of how deep that is so there's the the handrail we're going across the river D is just down there but there's the trough look now doesn't that look a hell of a lot higher that looks more than 5 foot down doesn't it that is absolutely unbelievable and this is what those drainage grills look like from above look so when it rains pounds down and the reason for this is because there's a lip look so the water the rain water cannot flow off and to keep it away from the wood and the edge it can just make its way down these little perforations just there the side of L Thomas tord designed a waterfall Horseshoe Falls and this was to control the levels of the water cuz they needed to feed the canal with water didn't they so horseshoes Falls was constructed to keep a steady level and flow of water to provide it all the way down now if I turn you around this is the view that you greeted with so you're coming down here remember you st at the back of the narrow boat you're not at the front so you can't see where you're going now if you're run with a family or a couple you can have somebody at the front and they can give you the old clip here or no don't come along because you can't see anything I'm going to go right on the edge look you can't see anything the tip of your boat is under there but you're around about there so to proceed safely it's quite a daunting thing cuz what you met with going through well we'll go under and have a look so if it's to go left Trevor Basin that's a dead end that's where all the higher boats are kept but you need to take this right turn coming in here the tip of your boat over there and then bring the rear end around and you're faced with Punk CET Aqueduct right there and another problem before going onto the aqueduct could well be you've got boats coming across so you generally come across in like a convoy 1 2 three four boats no matter how many are at the other end they're all coming together and it's kind of like a polite way of just waiting on the side lock but there isn't much room so they got to come across just there so once you've come out of there if you've got a away you need to try and spin it and then more up temporarily just there and it could be a good number of you side by side waiting and tied up for your journey across the world famous Aqueduct a side note look look at these rails in the ground this is at Trevor Basin and this was probably construction or to collect Goods of narrow boats you remember when it was coal when it was wood when it was gravel whatever the goods were it was bought from all the different areas around here they had to be unloaded and transported off and these rails go all the way down the length of Trevor Basin so just there is where you're coming out on your narrow Boo and you've circled around and you've come here and you've potentially just mowed up Trevor Basin just down there and you might be waiting for a passage of boats to come across just there but if not then you get to go you can un away from here untie your boat and take it down towards the aqueduct normally there'd be a little flow but it can't the aqueduct is closed there's no water on it so it's got to escape somewhere and what it does just down there is like a little Weir it drops down and goes underground and I'm going to show you in a moment where that water comes out and there look that's coming down from the canal that water's being jeted in downwards away because it cannot go across where it normally would do so there's a flow of water going down to the river [Music] d [Music] so that was it what an extraordinary experience to be right the way up there deep in the troughs up on the topass flying it around with the Drone and with these two as well Martin Roy what' you think to that amazing once in a lifetime I'll next time I go up there I'll be in a wheelchair I'll take you you'll be dead why you're older than me it's my birthday tomorrow thank you very much for watching from ponil Aqueduct that sound a bit Italian didn't it I've been doing it all day thank you very much Martin's Channel take care [Music] byebye [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] a [Music] [Music]

Channel: Trekking Exploration

Views: 145,525

Keywords: pontcysyllte aquaduct, pontcysyllte aqueduct, canal boat, llangollen canal towpath llangollen, pontcysyllte aquaduct drained, pontcysyllte aquaduct empty, llangollen canal aqueduct, llangollen canal walk, martin zero latest, martin zero trap door, pontcysyllte aqueduct draining, pontcysyllte aqueduct pronunciation, martin zero, pontcysyllte aqueduct drone, pontcysyllte-aqueduct llangollen canal, pontcysyllte aqueduct and canal, trekking, exploration

Id: ypyAsMIcyJE

Length: 20min 39sec (1239 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 10 2024