One of the SMRC Sunday morning Winter series fell to Chris Plummer, again. He found a fairly simple site, under the partly filled in arches of the railway viaduct, just to the East of Hyde railway station. The viaducts formed a triangle in plan and Chris placed the station inside the triangle. The River Irwell also flows under two of the viaducts and formed part of the access to the site. Most teams found the site a tease, as it was in a well built up area, thus making DF’ing and navigation difficult. The best way in was to park in a plating field car park, and walk round the end of the Brother (ex-Singer) sewing machine works along to the river bank, down to the water and paddle across the rocks under the viaduct and up the cinder slope to the arch. Inside the manmade cave the ground was dry but uneven and dark, so hiding was not difficult considering it was bright sunshine outside.

The aerial was tied onto the handrail of the viaduct and under the arches along the river bank. This effectively loaded up all the local overhead rail power lines and any metal thereabouts, and gave a grand signal at the start 15 miles away. This led some folk to stop short and then hedge (or rather house) hop to the site. Across the river was a local sewage works so you can imagine the state of the river water. However, Mallard were seen that morning, but the area was really a dump. This assessment of the area did not stop the local self-appointed nature wardens from removing some of the wire whilst it was in use (I hope they got a shock when the TX was on)