MDE11438 - 18th or 19th Century leat associated with Bampfylde Mine (Monument)

Old leat shown on 6 inch 1963 Ordnance Survey map. [1] Bampfylde mine leat. [2] Course survives largely intact. Before reaching the mine workings it is 8 feet wide and 3 feet deep. Width reduces to 6 feet during final approach to crusher house. Fed a whole series of launders which supplied dressing machinery, main wheel on engine shaft, crusher house and large wheel on west side of valley. [3] Probably linked to one of the two water wheels noted in a visit by Swedish technician, Henric Kahlmeter, in 1724. [4] The leat is depicted and labelled on the 25 inch 1st and 2nd Edition Ordnance Survey maps, running southwest parallel to the River Mole from SS 7450 3321 to SS 7389 3280. [5,6] A leat supplying the eastern workings of the Bampfylde copper mining complex runs from SS 7461 3327 to SS 7394 3265. It is some 2.2 metres in width, up to 1.5 metres in depth and it runs along the steep valley side. In places the channel has been rock cut. The leat formerly supplied three of the wheels on the eastern workings at SS 7389 3279, SS 7392 3265 (with attendant crusher house), and at SS 7392 3251. See 1:1250 survey and MDE1219. [7,8] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [9]