| More information : SX 59076647 to SX 57706386. The Lee Moor China Clay Works Leat. This maintained leat starts at a headweir on the River Plym and flows generally SW to feed the china clay works in the Lee Moor area.
The post-medieval Lee Moor China Clay leat recorded by previous authorities is visible as an earthwork on visualisations of Environment Agency 1m Lidar data flown in 2019 and 2021 Historic England orthomosaic aerial photography. It comprises a water channel with an earthwork bank on its downslope side. It is very well-preserved and still carries water. In Trowlesworthy Warren, the leat is crossed by numerous small stone bridges built for rabbits to pass safely over the water channel. From its source on the River Plym, the leat trends west and southwards on the contour 290m above mean sea level, crossing Hentor Brook and passing across the northern edge of Willings Walls Warren where it cuts a Bronze Age enclosed hut circle settlement (NRHE 438704). Having crossed Spanish Lake, the leat runs between the 280m and 285m contours through Trowlesworthy Warren. Post-medieval vermin traps have been built against the leat. To the east and south-east of Trowlesworthy Warren House, drainage ditches and gullies lead from the leat towards the house and its fields, taking water into ditches of the field system and also a leat supplying the farmhouse (NRHE 1631104). Heading roughly south-east, the leat cuts Bronze Age enclosures on the south-west facing slopes below the Trowlesworthy tors including NRHE 439163 and NRHE 1360292. At SX 57631 63899 it cuts a double stone row (NRHE 439217). The leat disappears at the edge of the modern China Clay works. For the purposes of this record, the monument polygon for the course of the leat from the River Plym at SX 58715 66223 to Spanish Lake has been derived from Dartmoor National Park Authority Historic Environment Record MDV24933, with reference to visualisations of 2019 Environment Agency Lidar data. The section of the leat within the English Heritage Trust Upper Plym Valley Guardianship Area was mapped from aerial sources in 2023 during the Historic England Dartmoor-Plym project. (1-2)
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