Talk:Leat
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The OED doesn't document the spelling lete, which is a different archaic word meaning "leach". Ortolan88 (it was used in a legal document in Cornwall in 1588 to refer to an artifical water course) 82.38.112.68 20:15, 25 May 2007 (UTC)mikeL
'Not just to a watermill' but to any industrial process, hammer mill, forge or furnace bellows, mineral washery/classification process , dye works, irrigation system and, no doubt, many others which need lots of water. The word, although not common in recent times, has been used more widely than the article suggests. I think I have also seen it spelt 'leet' 82.47.176.254 22:07, 11 March 2007 (UTC)mikeL
- Good point! I have added this to the article. Peterkingiron 23:23, 11 March 2007 (UTC)
An open channel inside an industrial plant is usually called a launder although neither Chambers or Wikipedia seem to know that 82.38.112.68 22:24, 25 May 2007 (UTC)mikeL
- Yes, so is an elevated wooden channel taking water from a leat to a watermill. I think I leat has to be on the ground. There are a lot of technical words that could usefully be explained as part of the article, including penstock. Peterkingiron 21:39, 26 May 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Gazeteer of Leats
Does anyone have or know of a gazeteer of leats in the West country? Worth's Dartmoor refers to a number of leats and blowing houses etc, which might form the basis of such a compilation. Peterlewis (talk) 20:11, 7 April 2008 (UTC)
- Hemery's "Walking Dartmoor Waterways" might add something? Cheers --Herby talk thyme 09:48, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- Please be wary of creating a general list of leats. Most were connected with mills, and the present list of mills is already enormous. However a List of mining-related leats might be interesting. Those for blowing houses would be better dealt with in articles on the blowing houses. Peterkingiron (talk) 21:58, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- The problem with this is that there really are a lot of (disused) leats. As almost every very small mine would have had some form of controlled water supply you can find places where there are three or four leat traces in quite a small area. The presence of a blowing house and a leat would be good to deal with. However for those Worth or Helen Harris & a look at Tom Greeves and Hemery should cover the majority? It would be good to see the Industrial archaeology of Dartmoor worked on from that viewpoint (Commons has a growing collection of collection of related material) --Herby talk thyme 06:52, 9 April 2008 (UTC)
- I agree – leats of some kind are pretty well ubiquitous in Britain. We farm four sets of typical riverside fields in Hampshire – every field has a major watermeadow leat ("main carrier") and several minor ones. Much the same happens in every field along the full lengths of all the southern English rivers, with extra leats for every mill (though many leats are now largely obscured by later changes). Then there are leats associated with canals, reservoirs, and as noted above, mines.
- Having said all that, I'm not sure Peterlewis was actually suggesting a list on Wikipedia, but was perhaps only asking for a source of information. If that was it, I think a better approach might just be to look for them – once you know what to look for you'll find them very easily. Start upstream of any watermill. --Richard New Forest (talk) 07:49, 9 April 2008 (UTC)
- The problem with this is that there really are a lot of (disused) leats. As almost every very small mine would have had some form of controlled water supply you can find places where there are three or four leat traces in quite a small area. The presence of a blowing house and a leat would be good to deal with. However for those Worth or Helen Harris & a look at Tom Greeves and Hemery should cover the majority? It would be good to see the Industrial archaeology of Dartmoor worked on from that viewpoint (Commons has a growing collection of collection of related material) --Herby talk thyme 06:52, 9 April 2008 (UTC)
- Please be wary of creating a general list of leats. Most were connected with mills, and the present list of mills is already enormous. However a List of mining-related leats might be interesting. Those for blowing houses would be better dealt with in articles on the blowing houses. Peterkingiron (talk) 21:58, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Article expansion needed
A good deal of work is needed to expand this article. This follows on from the last diuscussion. I would suggest that a paragraph (at least) is needed on each of the following:
- irrigation - generally; water meadows
- mills - have industrial archaeologists developed a system of classification of such leats?
- water supply to towns monsastries etc
- water supply for mining - to operate waterwheels for pumping; for hushing; for other alluvial mining; for ore preparation
Please feel free to add to this list. I would recommend that detailed discussion of the purpose for which the water was used should NOT appear here, but there should be a link to a main article on it using a "main" template. We have material on a few of these topics already by there is a lot missing. Peterkingiron (talk) 09:32, 9 April 2008 (UTC)
