Monument record 3622/1/1 - Possible Mill Ponds & Other Water Management Earthworks

Watermill (site of)

{1} Site of Watermill (SP 871746) 1 km. E of the village, on the N side of a broad valley, on clay at 66 m. above OD. The greater part of the site has been totally destroyed by modern agriculture and though it is partly recorded on older OS plans and on air photographs taken in 1947 it is difficult to explain the features shown. In 1947 these apparently consisted of the following: two narrow, irregular ponds lying at right-angles to the existing stream between Elbow Spinney and Mill Beds Copse and fed by water from a spring in the spinney; at the E end of Mill Beds Copse and near the lower of the two ponds, a deep ditch or narrow pond extending E for a distance of 450 m., with a massive retaining bank on its S side. In addition within Mill Beds Copse there still remain two parallel depressions, 7 m. wide and 4 m.- 8 m. apart and up to 0.75 m. deep, extending the length of the copse. The present name, Mill Beds Copse, indicates that the earthworks are the remains of a watermill; also the Tithe Map of 1842 records the fields to the E as Upper and Nether Mill Close.

{2} The earthworks of post medieval dams, forming ponds. The earthworks are very confusing and no coherent pattern is visible.

<1> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1979, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p.125 Site 13 (checked) (Series). SNN77380.

<2> Taylor P., 1992, Fishponds Report 1992, (checked) (Report). SNN1339.

<3> Ordnance Survey, 1880s, First Edition Ordnance Survey 25 Inch Mapping Series (46.09) (Map). SNN2671.

<4> Royal Air Force, Vertical Aerial Photography, RAF VAP CPE/UK/1925, 1236-7 (Photographs). SNN104890.

<5> 1842, Pytchley Tithe Map (Map). SNN31396.

Record last edited

Apr 12 2024 12:48PM