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Summary

Leat shown on late 19th and early 20th century Ordnance Survey maps, between Tavistock Canal and Morwellham.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1021461: Morwellham Quay: transport infrastructure, part of the water control system and a manganese mill

Other References/Statuses: none recorded

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• LEAT (XVIII to XIX - 1800 AD to 1820 AD? (Not applicable))

Full description

Ordnance Survey, 1880-1899, First Edition Ordnance 25 inch map (Cartographic). SDV336179.

Y-shaped leat shown originating from two points on south side of Tavistock Canal just south of the Morwelldown tunnel and running south-west to a pond to the north of Morwellham.

Ordnance Survey, 1904 - 1906, Second Edition Ordnance Survey 25 inch Map (Cartographic). SDV325644.

Map object based on this Source.

Ordnance Survey, 2011, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV346129.

Map object based on this Source.

Waterhouse, R., 2017, The Tavistock Canal. Its History and Archaeology, 237-39, 331, 355, Fig 7.30, 10.68 (Monograph). SDV361789.

One of three leats that fed the works at Morwellham; part of a complex multi-period system that ran for a total distance of about 2 kilometres, serving up to 12 waterwheels of varying sizes. The eastern leat was taken from the canal near the tunnel portal and ran down the Lobscombe valley floor, serving wheels at the sawmill and limekiln bank at the eastern end of the quays, before flushing the barge dock on the Limekiln Quay.
Water was abstracted twice from the Morwellham end of the tunnel, at its terminus and from a point just outside the south tunnel portal. From these points canal water was fed into two long leat systems, which provided water power for dozens of mines on the Devon bank of the Tamar.
An technically unusual spillway on the right bank of the canal near the north-western end of the Lobscombe embankment probably dates to the 1850s and has an iron grille at water level leading to a vertical masonry shaft, communicating with the culvert that carried the Lobscombe stream beneath the embankment (see fig 10.68).

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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