An inspection chamber of seven floors takes you down approx 160ft into the earth and sums up
the most noteable factor of The Motherload, its size! Technically it is the Northern Stormwater
Interceptor, built to relieve flooding on the River Frome. It is noted to be seven and a half
miles long with a diameter of 16ft, it seemed much larger! As you enter the system a rush of warm,
humid air hits you, not good if you're wearing glasses. The climb down all those ladders takes a good fifteen
minutes with the occassional stop to gaze back up at the ever decreasing light.
We found the atmosphere to be pretty hospitable and the drain was home to fish and eels. We've made two
visits to The Motherload, the discovery trip was myself and Stoop in early 2005, second was Stoop and
Siologen about a month later,
they explored it end to end while I checked out some Bristolian topside stuff. There's a heck of a lot of
engineering crammed in under Bristol and The Motherload contributes a sizable portion of it, all of a
modern concrete variety.
