More information : An earthen dam, centred at SE 5437 7928, lies across the unnamed stream that flows down past Byland Abbey (SE 57 NW 1) from the north-west. The valley here is fairly narrow, and the dam measures c 38m long by 15m wide at the base narrowing to nearer 5m across its summit, and stands at least 2.5m above the valley floor. The stream now escapes into an embanked leat (SE 57 NW 128) below the dam through a stone-lined breach situated towards the dam's southern shoulder, but may originally have flowed out through a central sluice as suggested by a finger of raised ground below the dam that lines up with the north side of the leat channel. The remains of a spillway survive across the dam's northern shoulder; this is well preserved in the west but has been badly spread where crossed by the modern farm track that runs along the top of the dam and almost totally obliterated in the east by a second, improvised, track that ascends the dam's eastern face.
The dam does not appear on any OS mapping, and appears to have gone unrecorded until recognised by McDonnell and Everest in 1965 who saw it as the second in a series of upto eight dams constructed across this valley by the monks of Byland, all retaining fishponds (1a-b). However, the leat below the dam originally supplied one of the abbey's mills (SE 57 NW 129), and it seems more likely that the reason for constructing the dam was a combination of land drainage/flood control and milling.
The eastern half of the dam lies within the area of RSM 13279. (1c)
Surveyed at 1:1000 scale as part of the EH: Byland Abbey Survey (dam DM1). See plans and report (1d) in the NMR for further information. |