Leat

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A leat (also spelled lete) is the name, common in the south and west of England, for a man-made watercourse, or makeshift aqueduct, often an artificial channel which supplies water to a watermill or its mill pond, collecting water from upstream of the mill so that the natural level of the driving water is above the level of the stream at the mill. Alternatively to may deliver water for mineral washing and concentration, irrigation or to a dye works.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, leat is cognate with let in the sense of "allow to pass through". Other names for the same thing include fleam (probably a leat supplying water to a mill that did not have a millpool). In parts of northern England, for example around Sheffield the equivalent word is goit.

[edit] Examples in Devon

Famous examples near Plymouth are:

Drake's Leat, constructed in 1591 under the management of Sir Francis Drake as an agent of the Corporation of Plymouth to carry water from Dartmoor to Plymouth.
Devonport Leat constructed in the late 18th century to carry water to the expanding naval dockyard at Devonport (now a part of Plymouth).

Leats were used to drain Marshland to the west of Exeter early in the 10th century, which resulted in Exe Island, the city's early industrial area since they could also be used to power mills. The only remaining example is Cricklepit Mill which was purchased by Devon Wildlife Trust in 2004 to be restored as its new headquarters.

In addition, there are many leats on Dartmoor, mostly constructed to provide power for mining activities, although some were also sources of drinking water. The courses of many Dartmoor leats may still be followed (Robins, 1984) and Hawkins (1987) describes a full history of the leats which supplied Plymouth, England.

[edit] References

Hawkings, D.J. (1987) Water from the moor, Devon, ISBN 0 86114 788 X
Robins, J. (1984) Follow the leat with John Robins : a series of walks along Dartmoor leats and a description of the mines some of them served, John Robins, ISBN 0 9508030 0 6