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Mowson Lane, Worrall


lysander

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As you travel down the lane toward the bottom of the slope and just before the right hand bend in the field there is a rectangular brick single storey building with a concrete slab as a roof ....It looks very second world war( ish) and I wonder if anyone knows what it was?

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I am not in a position to wander far from Hilldweller Towers, but I wonder if you are refering to a structure in the field over the wall on the left as you drive down what has at this point becomes Stockarth Lane. Just over the wall in front of it is a little five bar gate gizmo which gives the clue to what it is. The gate is the marker to show the line of the oil pipeline which forms part of a national pipline network connecting oil refinaries and depots all around the country. The pipe is of a considerable diameter and depth and contains oil products at very high pressures. Because it is not a contour pipeline the operating pressure is highest near the low parts of the line and following some ruptures and spillages, valve houses were installed at lower points to limit the escape of oil when excessive flows (escapes ) occur. I think that is what the structure which has a removable lid is.

The entire original system was installed by the government in the 1950's, at the height of the cold war, to enable oil to be transported around the country in times of national emergency. I believe it is now operated privately. The little five bar gates are falling into disrepair in some cases but tall white steel poles with a yellow pent roof and a black stripe across it give guidance to the helicopters which fly over it on a regular basis.

The only reason I know about this is because we once bought a bungalow at Lodge Moor which had the pipeline running through the front garden about 15 feet from the house and quite understandably I went into it further. A then young nephew and I had great fun tracing it's route across Yorkshire and Derbyshire by following the little five bar gates.

I hope that I am not being indiscrete  but the entire urban route of the line is marked by little roadside signs stating "Oil Pipeline" "In case of emergency ring so & so". There is even one sited in front of the struture. I think the Russians probably knew about it before it was laid.

Co-incidently I remember my father and I talking to the gangs who were laying the pipes across the Loxley Valley in about the mid fifties. I took me about 50 years to find out what they were for.

Hilldweller

 

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2 hours ago, lysander said:

As you travel down the lane toward the bottom of the slope and just before the right hand bend in the field there is a rectangular brick single storey building with a concrete slab as a roof ....It looks very second world war( ish) and I wonder if anyone knows what it was?

This?

https://goo.gl/maps/CVAEgyijGg42

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18 minutes ago, SteveHB said:

No, that is almost certainly  WW2 air raid shelter, probably provided for the use of the people living in the surrounding properties. Or it could have been a Home Guard Post on the road up to Worral.

I was refering to this.     I missed the shelter on my armchair Google tour of the area.

Incidently the heavy power cables in the background are one of two 66Kv links from Deepcar to the Cement Works at Hope. It was run from the old YEB area when the East Midlands supplies out there were too weedy to supply the Hope Works.

hilldweller

Stockarth Lane.GIF

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Interesting, - did you reach any conclusions as the where the pipeline came from/was going to?

I have seen similar markings for gas pipelines in this area, but we are a long way from any oil refinery.

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It's an interesting story (full story is on Wilipedia ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CLH_Pipeline_System 

In the run-up to WW2 the RAF realised they had fuel reserves for about 1 days peak fighting, and so set up additional storage depots.  However pipelines linking depots and refineries were not commenced until 1941.

The remains of the network is now operated by CLH, a Spanish firm

225106618_CLHPipeline.jpg.81485782d0cce0086e066b72bf67339b.jpg

 

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1 hour ago, Edmund said:

It's an interesting story (full story is on Wilipedia ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CLH_Pipeline_System 

In the run-up to WW2 the RAF realised they had fuel reserves for about 1 days peak fighting, and so set up additional storage depots.  However pipelines linking depots and refineries were not commenced until 1941.

The remains of the network is now operated by CLH, a Spanish firm

 

As the article states the WW2 Pluto network was found unsuitable for further use and abandoned. It was replaced by the present network, the local bits were installed in the 1950's.

There was a small pumping station / depot for the old network, located at Calver Sough where the car park of the present shop / cafe is nowadays.

A long diagonal depression in the Calver Cricket Ground pitch was found to be due to the collapse of the old pipeline.

My brother in law, sadly no longer with us, used to work at the spa processing plant up above Stoney Middleton and when they were digging a service tunnel under the road to link two parts of the plant they came across the severely corroded pipeline.

I believe the bit of the modern pipeline running through the outskirts of Sheffield is still operational because they still overfly the route every couple of weeks and it's only a year or so ago that I saw the bloke with a instrument strapped to his chest and carrying two ski-stick probes making his way through peoples front gardens in Lodge Moor. He is checking the efficiency of the cathodic protection on the pipeline. The leases of the properties contain a covenant from the MOD giving the bloke access.

It's only a few years ago when they replaced worn sections of the pipeline at Lodge Lane and Upper Burbage Bridge.

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2 hours ago, rover1949 said:

Interesting, - did you reach any conclusions as the where the pipeline came from/was going to?

I have seen similar markings for gas pipelines in this area, but we are a long way from any oil refinery.

The bit of the pipeline that runs locally was part of the link between Rawcliffe and Bramhall.

We picked it up at the pumping station and mothballed distribution depot at Black Bank near Oxspring. From there it runs along Wharncliffe Chase, past the crem at Grenoside, down under the Don by Middlewood Tavern, up past Worral, down Long Lane to cross the River Loxley by Rowall :Lane. It then runs up and over the Stannington Ridge and down to cross the Rivelin by the bottom of Lodge Lane. It runs up the fields to the hairpin junction on Lodge Lane and the through side gardens to the junction with Redmires Road. At this point it crosses to the other side of Blackbrook Road and through front gardens to a point just past Rochester Road where it bends at right angles and runs over the fields up to Fulwood Lane. From there it runs across the fields to Ringinglow Road, turns at a right angle, and follows this out to Upper Burbage Bridge, down Callow Bank, around Hathersage, Hope and Castleton. It then runs up the right hand side of the Winnetts Pass under the wide grass verge and at the top runs across to Bramhall. It was just past this point that a JCB damaged the pipeline and I understand the clean-up costs ran into millions.

 

I hope this answers your question.

hilldweeler

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You may well ask. It seems to me that sucessive governments have been only too eager to sell off the nation's family silver.

Whatever became of the notion of keeping strategic necessities "in house", so as to speak.

Don't get me on about Brexit, I'd gladly take a 20% cut in income and pay 20% more for goods in order to be shot of that completely un-democratic, unelected and un-accountable bunch of shysters telling us what we can and can't do.

If I live long enough to need another car I'll buy an electric car, made by a Japanese company and produced in the North East.

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59 minutes ago, rover1949 said:

Thanks hilldweller, good stuff.

What a tortuous route for a pipe-line and why do we need a Spanish company to run it ?

It appears that the route was selected to avoid built up areas, considering that the pipeline can carry some dangerous liquids including aviation fuel and petrol. Remember Buncefield ?

hilldweller

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Thanks for all the information....One wonders why so many of our national assets are foreign owned...could be too many of our investors just like making money without the responsibilities of owning productive assets....with all the perceived potential problems?

I lived in Eckington for a while and the deeds of my house instructed I had to give access at all times of the day to the Government...my house sat on the top of the ( long since lifted) Pluto pipeline.

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