The River Medlock Episode X. The disappearing River

[Music] [Music] hello and welcome back to the river Medlock journey this is episode 10 when you join us where we left off in episode 9 in the middle of a hellhole of a river culvert this is the last of the big culverts on the river Medlocke from here the river heads towards castle field and then finally onwards to its confluence with the river oh well let me show you on a map exactly where we are in Manchester now our journey begins here where the cursor is and you can see the river disappears into the culverts and we're going under the home cinema complex there's bars there there's restaurants but it used to be very different because that area used to be the gay thong gasworks so we'll revisit that in a moment the journey continues and it's only a short journey around the corner to a place called knot mill and here the river disappears and I'll show you that as well now onwards you can see that the canal sort of complex comes in now and intersects the river you've got the Castlefield basin and it's where the Rochdale canal and the Bridgewater canal meet now you can see where the cursor is now that is now where the river carries on the natural course of the river and it runs onwards towards the river oh well so let's jump back into the culvert a miserable place what I'll do is old ago she ate some of this and then I'll learn I'll speak to you sort of so fire up because you can see it's going to be difficult to negotiate that the annoying thing is at the other side it's really shallow but it's like a summer walk again anyway I'll speak in a minute you get the impression though what we're walking in [Music] how deep is this pit now is it going Lasser over there this is endless it's that robbery right so that robbery whatever it gets to about knee-deep it just gets above knee-deep it gets intimidating so this culvert that we're in what's the history above it well here's an aerial photograph from 1928 and above us in that culvert as you can see here used to be the gate on gas works like say this is 1928 and the green arrow there that you see is pointing out the big sort of black gray Hulk of the gate on Gas Works that dominated the area the blue arrow that you see shows where the river Medlock re-emerges from the culvert that we're currently in and we'll be walking through there in a bit just for reference you'll see that there's a red arrow there pointing to the corner building that building later became Manchester's famous haçienda nightclub so a little bit reference for you there here's another aerial view or let you look at this as well now the gate on Gas Works has its roots in the 1825 provincial portable gas company of London and they built a works on the site and they compress gas into copper cylinders and distributed it to their customers in 1837 the Gas Works was bought and converted into a standard Gas Works and it was a it produced gas and pipes gas to customers around the chalten upon Medlock area by about 1929 it was considered out-of-date and it was just basically used as a gas distribution points [Music] I'm not fully sure of the story behind this picture but it's entitled desperate people in 1950 loading up coal that the gate on gas works [Music] eventually the gasworks was pulled down and the land was decontaminated as I said earlier the first Street and home cinema complex was built on the site there used to be a bit of a nod to the gasworks opposite the Hacienda Club and might be sure if this is still here but it's quite wonderful now amazingly the culvert we're in I found a picture of it this pictures dated 1903 and this is that call that we've just been in it looks like the Gas Works is being pulled down or it's certainly not being built because it dates earlier than 1903 but that's the culvert and that's the River Medlock here's another picture of it now that cross-section through the gasworks there reminds me very much of the earlier video that I did about the Gould Street Gas Works Gas Works or Rochdale Road Gas Works absolutely fantastic pictures so there you go so I think we're underneath City Road and this would have probably been the original bridge for it you can see there and the live obviously widened everything and you'll see a continuation there that was a fairly grim in there two runs with you fairly grim indeed that's good are there a lot of bricks in the in the river at this point no wonder there's been demolition at the sides and they've just let it all go in the river right so you know where we are the I think need to call the Orange Street skyscrapers up there aim round the corner there I think the Medlock family meets Castlefield Basin so I think we should we get near journey's end now so I'll keep filming and we just round the corner which would family meet the end this has been the most I've been very challenging it's been the most challenging part of the Medlock I think this and I never thought it would be anyway let's crack on we're always the safer at Castle field [Music] what's interesting is you see the stone there which is extremely old obviously right next to it is the very very very modern so it's amazing the way you've got that sort of light contrast between it's really all stone there and and then they obviously the new skyscrapers and they're as you look ahead they're looking out there a piece of a very old Manchester you can see there what I don't know what I'm looking at but some sort of Arts there and if you look along the entire wall full of them and it's full of all sorts of outlets there so that wall that we're looking at looks like the base and the remains of a very old building and it is take a look at the 1888 map that's our direction of travel with the red arrow lot to the left looks like it's the remains of not Mill ironworks and over on the right you see those buildings there well one of those buildings was the Brazil mill here's some pictures of that as well [Music] [Music] [Music] you know well here we are huh oh yeah journey's end well it's not the end of the Medlock bought from here now the Medlock what it does is it was very clever James brinway he canal engineer made me go forward to feed castle field basin and give a flow of water or supply water to the Bridgewater canal at castle field there's something very interesting down there because he also have plunged the excess water down a siphon which goes underneath Castle field I'm amazed we've got it and yet I thought we have to miss this bit out because you can't see this people on the street we're going to go up here now and have a look it's been substantially altered over the years and it got altered a lot in the eighteen hundreds well there we'll see if we can show you the siphon this is where it gets quite interesting the water's getting quite a fast here now you can see ahead so this was in some sort of station here it was some sort of wheel where they controlled the flow of the Medlock and you'll see here I think it used to go onwards there they used to go through there and feed the bridgewater book now because of the Watts Dale canal he doesn't need to and so it now goes underneath there into a siphon so I'll go and see if we can get in there to that see all the older works here where's the goose over there yeah you see this all this mechanism and the old steps up there and apparently the you speak and suddenly based up there that Rousseau monitor the Medlock all the time yes I don't our dependency doesn't look that deep to us because it so it's amazing to be able to see where the medmont family dips on the castle field all big blocks have been stone in on the side as you can see so the river would have gone this way where it now stops and the obviously built on the side here this bit as you can see it's better stone there Robert you can tell it's it all the canal sort of engineering that care yeah and then if the river plunges down there what I'll do is we'll go look over here behind me we'll see where the river used to be the bridge what canal oh it's full lighten it very full that's scary so this is not melbridge in manchester you can see there the original stone of the of the bridge absolutely beautiful well covered on the street you can't see any of this at all but as we peer through there that goes through to castle field canal basin and the start of the Bridgewater canal and it looks like another bridge they're not quite sure quite fascinating then as we look along where we've just been you'll see the steps there and the walkway going along to the weir mechanism they could decide whether the river ran through into the canal basin or diverting underneath the tunnel that goes underneath castle field we'll take a look at that because there's more to that just have a quick look at so I'll gather know that's a bit of a closer look at that area now we'll get the shots I'm gonna come back here as long as I live so jump forward a couple of weeks we were in the Medlock a few weeks ago I'm just doing this little extra bit for you this is Deansgate believe it or not this is the law part of Deansgate and this is not Mill bridge not Mill pretties there so where I've just been showing you he's underneath us but mo block he's there behind that wall now when we were in the Medlock and you saw that mechanism that I was never happy because they never completely filmed that mechanism to my satisfaction so come back today dodge in the rain and I've got me a ladder with me no I've had been ladder for about a year you've seen it before I'm going to put it against the wall and take a look over and try and get a close-up for of the the wear mechanism and as it's been raining really really heavily we can take a look at the Medlock now in full flow so let's get the ladder up and take a look right just actually I've got the ladder mcwhopper weather let's go up so with a better look we'll get this will get the shot I won't get in trouble at the police right so mark who's filming me it's got to form a ladder when I go up there so I'll take over mark oh it's in thank you beautiful the difference is staggering isn't it where the water is divert in down there we sat on that wall Charlie had a cigarette I had a drink the siphon there you can see Canal the cult with the flow of water now that's what I've just been looking down and getting the camera shots off and look at the difference incredible the power of that absolutely scary well there's the weir mechanism that's what I wanted to show you the old Weir mechanism and I think that's what they use to divert tea either down to regulate the flow either down the siphon or onwards towards Castlefield and so I so I believe but one of the things I want to do I want to show you a picture from 1936 of this view that you're looking at now and of the the mechanism and the weir so just take a look at this from 1936 [Music] right so I've got that shot there but I want to get a shot from the side and because I want to look at the wall that's here to see how high the middle of who's up the wall so let's just take the light around and take a look at the side wall this is the building site by the way from office skyscrapers right let's have a look at this camera okay so this didn't work out very well I was trying to show you how high up the wall it came where I walked up to that wall and filmed over it underneath not Mill bridge but I couldn't quite see it and then the camera focuses on the fence and bit but pointless one this one but anyway you get the idea and what I show you is as well so where you saw that water when I showed you underneath the nock Mill bridge yeah actually runs underneath these apartments here down there you can see the water so that runs through it's a castle field so on the other side of those apartments is there you can see and here is that area on the 1813 map I'm sorry if I'm laboring the point I suppose I'm doing it as much for me as you really and trying to understand it in anyway the white arrow is where the siphon is and we've just been looking at the river running really fast at the white arrow not Mill where I walked across the road to the red X and showed you the apartments now obviously that building was the building much prior to the apartments but that's where the the the water was underneath the building the black M is where I currently am that's where I'm filming I'm showing you castle field there - Castle field basin the river Medlock is now in its culvert in a tunnel and it's over where it really is where the blue arrow is and carries on as a normal river up there in that area of Castle field but if you look at Castle field now and if you flip back to the do some of the previous Google Maps I've shown you of Castle field you'll see how much more of a simple affair is in 1813 it was gonna probably blow up as more and more sort of like little side wharfs got built and where else has got built this became an industrial hub where all the canal boats came in from the bridge water and the Rochdale canal but at the moment the Castle field there that we're looking at is a much more simple affair anyway let's flick flick back to the current castle field but the Medlock used to flow through here and feed this basin I've run through here for you on this tunnel let's go and used to feed Castlefield basin with its water now this herein lies the question seventeen hundred's late seventeen hundreds Medlock's flow in this way it's a castle filled basin to feed the Bridgewater canal with its water rocks dilka down at the time didn't exist let's just go down here so great idea to have a river filling or feeding the Bridgewater canal it was a brilliant idea however come industry and all the mills and all the factories along side of the Medlock and the status of fowl it opened just discharged their waste into the Medlock along with sewage that was going into it as well so it was washing into here foul-smelling putrid black horrible water and the Bridgewater canal company didn't want that also it was causing a problem with silt in as well as bringing lots of silt into the bridge working out so this became an issue so at some point in the early eighteen hundreds they built that siphon and I think that's when they did it early eighteen hundreds and it saw they could send the Medlock underneath by the siphon into a culvert round Castle field to rejoin its natural riverbed over there somewhere ok so now the Medlock is now in a tunnel underneath here and goes that way underneath Castle field I think you ventually what happened was he when the rock still canal was built the Bridgewater canal company had an agreement with the Rochdale canal company to use the water to feed the entire basin under bridge walking out from the Rochdale canal lot still canal being fed by big reservoirs up on the moors anyway putting the time on that or putting a date on that siphon that culvert that the Medlock is now in he's very difficult i've otherworldly Jeff our friend who wrote the book The Lost waterways of Manchester and even he's finding it difficult to pin it down to an exact date he did however send me some really interested information and it's from a newspaper quoting from a very old newspaper I think it's dated 1896 Bowl I just got to this newspaper core now this is really good so here we go here's the newspaper question that Jeff has very kindly sent to us and it's from the Manchester courier and Lancashire general advertiser Saturday August 11th 18-49 let's take a look at what he says so here it is and it's actually a really good article it talks about the the filth that was coming in from the Medlock and he talks about it uses that word effluvia but I'll start it off and this is the the interesting bit it says a few years since the trustees of the canal for seeing that the Medlock water must be turned out of the canal constructed at very great expense a tunnel on the castle field down into the river oh well and which tunnel is capable of taking the whole of the waters from the river it was also in contemplation at that period to arrange with the Rochdale canal company to pass down their canal a larger quantity of pure water to supply any deficiency that may be experienced in the Bridgewater canal and the Medlock water was no longer used so there you go they've made an arrangement with the Rochdale canal to supply water and they no longer want the waters of the Medlock so at some point previous to 1849 and after 1769 was it when the Bridgewater canal was built that siphon that culvert was built to divert the medlocke away from the castle field basin all very very fascinating anyway let's go back to the current Castle field so there you go that was really interesting werenít firstly I find the whole thing fascinating honestly I really do it's absolutely amazing anyway from a rainy day we're going to cut back to a few weeks ago which some were wondering whether it was much better and the Medlock was much lower to me and Charlie and will round off the video challenge so from here at castle field where the Medlock family plunges down into siphon and disappears on the castle field for a bit Andrea merges to the side thanks for watching the thanks Charlie for something encouraging me on because though we almost ditched anything we at some point there but it's amazing to be here and you can't get to this bit from the street anyway from Castle Field on the River Medlock thank you for watching see in the next video bye for now [Music]

Channel: Martin Zero

Views: 65,281

Rating: 4.9636364 out of 5

Keywords: manchester history, urban exploring, river medlock, history of manchester, disappearing river, urbex manchester, rochdale canal manchester, bridgewater canal manchester, river culvert, james brindley canal engineer, River weir, victorian architecture, victorian engineering, canal engineering, martin zero, martin zero manchester, martin zero medlock

Id: VRh1OwVo86g

Length: 28min 13sec (1693 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 29 2019