The Leat Restoration
The Leat was a stream or channel usually man made which carried the water from the mill pond or diverted from a river.
The first photo shows the very overgrown and buried leat under top soil after approx 60 years. The old water wheel is just below the down pipe which is covered in years of Ivy growth.
The next photos show the excavation of the old leat and repairing of the stone walls looking towards the gardens and mill pond in the distance.
These next shows the restoration of the walls. The top courses of stone were in a very bad state, totally rotten with Ivy embedded in all of the joints.
I managed to keep the bottom layers of stone in place as these were a denser stone and the lime had calcified from years of water flow which has now formed a very strong joint, I just needed to rake the loose mortar back and re-point with lime.
These two photos show the leat being re-lined with clay, which is puddled into the ground using my feet! This should keep it water tight. The mill pond was done the same way (see my article on the pond).
The bottom photos show the leat finished.
