The works is composed of an overflow chamber and it's associated outfall tunnel on the Moston Brook culvert known as Inhospitable.
This relatively short section of Mancunian subterranea is host to a mass of features, both man-made and
natural, that make it one of the best Manchester drains there are (in my opinion). From it's dressed stone outfall on the
River Irk a ten foot two tone tunnel of blue and red brick snakes it's way back under the steep hillside. It twists
and turns repeatedly, one particularly sublime bend makes an 80 degree turn that looks incredible as
torch beams from up ahead wrap back around its walls and bounce off the curving waterflow.
There's one major construction change at a point where the drain passes beneath a junction of railway lines, here it has
been more recently concrete lined, but primarily it's construction is of red and blue brick, blue in the lower half, red upper.
From archive images it would appear to have been nearing completion around 1900, see the pics via external links section at bottom
of page.
We first explored The Works during the 2004 Manchester draining Expo, the UKs first real countrywide draining get together.
Back then I was taking pics on a 3mp Sony point and shoot compact that was capable of a maximum 2 second exposure, at its
own discretion, so my picture taking options were limited to very black images with a torch in shot, or flat washed out flash shots.
Our most recent visit in December 2006 was great, it's such a chilled out drain every second of it is enjoyable, I also got to
take some pics that better represent what we saw.
