| More information : Phillips Leat - 19th century clayworks leat supplying the China clay works on Lee Moor. (1)
SX 60476738 to SX 58236446. The Phillips Leat is visible as a dry channel rising on the left bank of the River Plym slightly above Plym Ford and runing for approximately 7km before it ends at a former reservior at the head of Spring Tide. The Channel measures up to 2.0m wide and 1.2m deep and is fronted by an often massive bank for much of its length.
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Length of the Phillips Leat on Hentor Warren, surviving as a 1525 metre long, 1 metre wide and 0.5 metre deep channel, flanked on the downslope side by a earthen bank. A bridge over the leat, at SX 59056568, survives as an arrangement of long, flat stones. The Phillips Leat was constructed circa 1835. Scheduled. (3)
The post-medieval Philips Leat recorded by previous authorities is visible as an earthwork on visualisations of Environment Agency 1m Lidar data flown in 2019, 2021 Historic England orthomosaic aerial photography and visualisations of a Digital Elevation Model derived from the orthomosaic. Approximately 5.6km of the leat was mapped from aerial sources in 2023 during the Historic England Dartmoor-Plym project. It comprises a water channel with an earthwork bank on its downslope side along most of its length. It is well-preserved, with a few short breaks along its course
The Philips Leat takes water from the River Plym at SX 60482 67385. It follows the contour 360m above mean sea level, passing southwards to Langcombe Brook. Presumably it was carried over the tin streamworks in the base of Langcombe Brook by means of a launder.
The leat continues to contour west and southwards, cutting the Bronze Age enclosure NRHE 441614. To the north of Shavercombe Brook it was again presumably channelled into launders to pass over opencuts (NRHE 1362143) and then Shavercombe Brook itself in the environs of SX 59499 66085. By now on the 345m contour, the leat cuts Hentor Warren (NRHE 438876) and the medieval/post-medieval field systems of Hentor farmstead (NRHE 438864). Having crossed Hentor Brook at SX 58811 65267 and dropped onto the 340m contour, the leat passes over Lee Moor, cutting the Willings Walls Warren boundary bank (NRHE 439346) at SX 58305 64733.
To the south-east of Great Trowelsworthy Tor the leat’s course is less clear. At SX 58272 64332 the water channel is directed into a broad gully that is likely the result of late C20 remodelling by the China Clay company (Dartmoor National Park Authority Historic Environment Record MDV24937). Two sections of original water channel and earthwork bank survive above the gully on the west side, measuring 43.5m and 81.7m long. A 15m long section of earthwork bank on the same orientation may also be a part of the leat. These features may have been left after the construction of a dam at SX 58235 64212 (NRHE 1568879) to divert water into Spanish Lake. Further lengths of the leat survive on the 320m contour, centred on SX 58010 63833, before it makes a sharp bend to the south-west at SX 58056 63686 travelling perpendicularly to the contours. How these last sections interact with the stream of Spring Tide is unclear from the aerial sources, but at this point the leat is oriented on Big Pond (Dartmoor National Park Authority Historic Environment Record MDV49037). The feature disappears at the edge of the modern China Clay works. (4-6)
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