Oxygen being pumped into the River Ely nearby the Tesco supermarket roundabout.

The upper view shows the Cogan Pill, which is now culveted, began on the south bank of the River Ely near the Tesco roundabout. There used to be a raw sewage outlet from Llandough Hospital close to the drawing office a little way to the right of the image. In the late 1960’s the outfall periodically excreted large quantities of raw sewage in the form of large floating unmentionables which flocks of seagulls devoured with relish; numerous rubber gloves and condoms followed which dependent upon the state of the tide, floated upstream and then, when the tide ebbed you could say hello to them all over again on their journey to the Severn Sea!

In the lower image, I recall working at my drawing board one summer afternoon in 1969 and being distracted by the sounds of a speedboat towing an inflated man with an inflated ego on water skies up and down the River Ely. He was showing off to a group of onlookers standing on-shore. On one sharp turn just upstream from our office he lost his grip of the tow and veered off at a tangent and in a straight path towards the sewage outlet, sinking gradually and he went down, down, deeper and down! Just at the right moment there was a upward convulsion of the waters and sewage spewed into the river; his facial expression changed when he realised his predicament. My fellow draughtsman, Reggie and I cried with laughter; it was like a scene from a Carry-On film! [092]