The Devonport Leat is a

leat A leat (; also lete or leet, or millstream) is the name, common in the south and west of England and in Wales, for an artificial watercourse or aqueduct dug into the ground, especially one supplying water to a watermill or its mill pond. Othe ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

constructed in the 1790s to carry fresh drinking water from the high ground of

Dartmoor Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers . The granite which forms the uplands dates from the Carboniferous P ...

to the expanding dockyards at Plymouth Dock (which was renamed as

Devonport, Devon Devonport ( ), formerly named Plymouth Dock or just Dock, is a district of Plymouth in the English county of Devon, although it was, at one time, the more important settlement. It became a county borough in 1889. Devonport was originally one o ...

on 1 January 1824).

Feedwaters

It is fed by five Dartmoor rivers: the

West Dart The West Dart River is one of the two main tributaries of the River Dart in Devon, England. Its source is about 2 km north of Rough Tor on north Dartmoor. It flows south to Two Bridges, then south east past Hexworthy to meet the East Dar ...

, the Cowsic, the Hart Tor Brook, the River Meavy and the Blackabrook (this last apparently was the first portion to supply Plymouth Dock). Aqueduct 2

Construction

Dartmoor

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

was used to construct the water channel, as well as a small aqueduct and a tunnel.

Historic changes

It was originally designed to carry water all the way to Plymouth Dock, a total distance of , but has since been shortened and the operational part of the leat now stops near the

Burrator Reservoir Burrator Reservoir is a reservoir on the south side of Dartmoor in the English county of Devon. It is one of a number of reservoirs and dams that were built over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries in the area now covered by Dartmoor Nati ...

dam. Some of the water goes through underground pipes to the water treatment works at Dousland; the rest goes into the Burrator Reservoir which provides most of the water supply of Plymouth. For part of the route to Dousland the pipes follow the route of the disused Yelverton to

Princetown Princetown is a villageDespite its name, Princetown is not classed as a town today – it is not included in the County Council's list of the 29 towns in Devon: located within Dartmoor national park in the English county of Devon. It is the ...

Railway. Before the piped supply to Dousland was installed, the water was used for a hydroelectric turbine near Yelverton Reservoir and fed by a pipe.

Route

The Devonport Leat begins a short distance to the north of

Wistman's Wood Wistman's Wood is one of three remote high-altitude oakwoods on Dartmoor, Devon, England. Geography The wood lies at an altitude of 380–410 metres in the valley of the West Dart River near Two Bridges, at grid reference SX612772. The sourc ...

at an altitude of over and twice passes close to Two Bridges (following the contours up the Cowsic valley in between) before heading towards

. Its water supply now ends up in

. It follows a meandering path across the moor, carefully selected by engineers to follow the natural contours of the land.

References

External links