More information : This monument was formerly part of SE 57 NW 14, but is now the subject of its own record with descriptive text and sources transferred from SE 57 NW 14 and edited as appropriate. (1)
(SE 5466 7917). Remains of a dam, part of a complex of fishponds associated with Byland Abbey (SE 57 NW 1).
The remains, as shown on OS 6" 1957, consist of a dam running from SE 5466 7912 to SE 5467 7922. (2)
The dam is strongly constructed of earth with a stone core, and apart from its use to retain a fishpond, was obviously from its topographical situation also engineered as a flood bank for the abbey which is situated in a very low-lying position.
The original perimeter of the pond can no longer be traced. The perimeter would be natural and varying, being governed by the amount of rainfall or input into the embayed area.
Dam revised on 1:2500 MSD. (3)
Byland Abbey pond system. Pond C has a dam some 10ft high and 300ft long faced on the water side with large stone blocks, probably a later modification. Together with further ponds upstream (ponds D-J), it may represent a stop-gap second phase to the system bewteeen the loss of Pond A (SE 57 NW 119) and the development of pond B (SE 57 NW 14), or be subsequent to the latter. Pond C is also linked with the transfer of corn-milling from Pond M1 (SE 57 NE 132) to M2 (SE 57 NW 115). (4)
The dam was investigated by members of EH's Archaeological Survey & Investigation team in 2004 as part of a rapid (level 1) field assessment of earthworks within the area of the monastic precinct. The assessment was carried out to inform site-display strategies and the production of a Conservation Statement.
The feature has been depicted on OS mapping for over a hundred years (5a), but only began to be named on the maps as Pond Bay (NR) from the later 20th century following the published work of Jerry McDonnell (authorities 2 and 4) who identified it as the lowest in a series of upto eight dams constructed across this valley by the monks of Byland, all retaining fishponds. Subsequent accounts of Byland have followed this interpretation, although latterly Harrison has also seen it as defining the line of the western boundary of the abbey precinct which ran along its summit (5b-c).
The dam seems large in comparison to the size of the pond it retained, and this may indicate that as well as retaining water it was constructed as a routeway across the valley for carts passing between the abbey and its properties to the north. The size of the dam might also reflect a degree of ornamentation to impress visitors approaching the abbey from the west. Its west side is near vertical and was revetted with masonry, some of which still survives.
The full report of the assessment (5d) has been depoisted in the NMR. (5)
The dam, which lies across the mouth of a valley at Byland north-west of the claustral ranges, is a massive, flat-topped bank very much as described by authorities 3 and 5. It measures 125m long by 5-15m wide by 2.5m high, and is constructed out of earth and, on the west side, stone, although the latter is heavily masked by outgrown hedges that flank the farm track running along the summit, the roots of which are also causing damage to the stonework. The dam has an asymmetrical profile, with the stone-revetted west face being very much steeper than the mainly earthen eastern face. Opposed scoops near the centre of the dam mark the site of an infilled stone-lined breach discovered by the farmer (6a) during drainage operations circa 1980.
The use of stone and asymmetrical profile make the dam very unlike others included within the so-called fishpond complex (especially SE 57 NW 14, 113 and 119). It is also markedly different from these other examples in not having a spillway, and it is hard to see anyway how any pond it retained could actually have been supplied with water: the leat that runs down towards it from the next dam (SE 57 NW 113) up the valley would most likely have skirted around the south-west corner of the pond. Together, these differences suggest that the dam was not built to retain a permanent body of water but was instead designed (as suggested by authority 3) as a barrier protecting the precinct, behind which floodwater coming down the valley could be temporarily impounded. Authority 5's suggestion that it also acted as a causeway across the valley is another, not necessarily mutually exclusive, possibility. Harrison (authority 5c) has suggested that the dam formed part of the precinct boundary, but it actually lies slightly off and outside the line of that boundary if the known course south of the Oldstead road is projected northwards. This suggests that the dam may post-date the laying out of the precinct, and be a response to one or more unrecorded flood events. It is perfectly possible, however, that the boundary was later re-routed along the dam's summit since otherwise it would have provided an unwelcome vantage point from which people could look down into the precinct.
The dam lies within the area of RSM 13279 (6b).
Surveyed at 1:1000 scale as part of the EH: Byland Abbey Survey (dam DM2). See plans and report (6c) in the NMR for further information. (6)
|