Rowland Vaughan (1559–1629) was an English manorial lord who is credited with the introduction of a new

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has bee ...

system that greatly improved the grass and

hay Hay is grass, legumes, or other herbaceous plants that have been cut and dried to be stored for use as animal fodder, either for large grazing animals raised as livestock, such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep, or for smaller domesticate ...

production of

meadow A meadow ( ) is an open habitat or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non- woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as they maintain an open character. Meadows can occur naturally under favourable con ...

s through a system of periodic "drownings". This method so improved grass production that lands formerly needed to provide livestock with food during the winter could be given over to grazing or cereal production. It was one of the many new methods introduced during the

British Agricultural Revolution The British Agricultural Revolution, or Second Agricultural Revolution, was an unprecedented increase in agricultural production in Britain arising from increases in labor and land productivity between the mid-17th and late 19th centuries. Agricu ...

that increased crop yields and allowed for the development of large cities.

Early life

Rowland Vaughan was the second son of Watkyn Vaughan of

Bredwardine Bredwardine is a village and civil parish in the west of Herefordshire, England. Significant parish landmarks include a brick bridge over the River Wye, the historic ''Red Lion'' late 17th-century coaching inn, St Andrew's Church, and the site ...

, Herefordshire. The Vaughan family was closely entwined with another local family, the Parrys, with numerous inter-marriages. It was through the contact of his great-aunt,

Blanche Parry Blanche Parry (1507/8–12 February 1590) of Newcourt in the parish of Bacton, Herefordshire, in the Welsh Marches, was a personal attendant of Queen Elizabeth I, who held the offices of Chief Gentlewoman of the Queen's Most Honourable Privy C ...

, that Rowland came to spend some time in the court of Queen

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudo ...

of England, Blanche being one of the queen's longest-serving women. However Rowland complained of the 'bitternesse' of Blanche's 'humor'. Rowland left court to join the military, leaving for the

Nine Years' War The Nine Years' War was a European great power conflict from 1688 to 1697 between Kingdom of France, France and the Grand Alliance (League of Augsburg), Grand Alliance. Although largely concentrated in Europe, fighting spread to colonial poss ...

in Ireland. Here the combination of bad food and wet weather invalided him from the Army, and he returned to Bredwardine. He recovered in six months and was planning to take to the field again, but met a 'country-gentlewoman' (another Parry) who had inherited a local manor, Newcourt, and married her. Rowland also inherited an adjoining estate, Whitehouse in Turnastone. The combined estates stretched along the Golden Valley, on the west bank of the

River Dore The River Dore (Welsh: ''Afon Aur'' lit: 'the river of gold') is a tributary of the River Monnow in Herefordshire, England. It rises on Cusop Hill, in the foothills of the Black Mountains, close to the border between England and Wales. It fl ...

, from Peterchurch to Bacton.

Irrigation scheme

After two years, "I began to expostulate with myself what was best to be done to preserve my reputation with my martiall companions, and with-all to give contentment to my vertuous and loving wife". His wife asked that he take to walking the estates, especially to check up on the miller who ran the

water mill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production ...

on her land. Millers were long considered the least honest workmen, and Rowland was less than impressed with the duty, complaining it "therefore requires the more paines to be taken in watching their water, & looking to their fingers." Nevertheless, he took her advice, "lest shee should have held me careless of her good, and so ill deserve her love." It was during one of these walks that Rowland noticed a molehill that had been dug into a local stream such that water from the stream exited the bottom of the molehill. He noticed that the grass under the stream was considerably more lush than the grass around it. He set about attempting to duplicate the system on the Golden Valley properties. The work took twenty years, from about 1584 to 1604. The main component was a three-mile (5 km) long artificial channel leading from the Dore at Peterchurch, running alongside it, and finally back into the Dore at

Abbey Dore Abbey Dore is a village and civil parish in Herefordshire, England, known for Dore Abbey, a 12th-century Cistercian abbey, which was expanded in the 13th century. The name Abbey Dore came into being in the 18th century, combining the Modern E ...

. The result was a large plot of land between the Dore and the trench that could be flooded. The "Trench Royal", as he called it, was wide and deep for the first half-mile, and then wide and deep for the rest. A sluicegate at the downstream exit controlled the flow of water into the fields; closing it would flood the fields, opening it allowed the water to drain off again. The use of flooding increased the yearly value of the land from £40 to £300 per year. Six years later, in 1610 Rowland published a book describing the system, ''Most Approved and Long experienced Water Workes containing The manner of Winter and Summer drowning''. In it he claimed that the Trench Royal was navigable, and was being used to ship goods from one end of the estate to the other. The book also claimed they built up the area, including a mill and up to 2,000 workers. If these accounts are true, no trace of their houses remains. An account was also published describing a similar system in the Wylye Valley in

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

, but the name of the author is lost to history. It has more recently been shown that Vaughan's system was the duplicate of a system used throughout Europe as early as the 13th century, and it is now believed that his primarily role was to popularise the system in England, at least in hindsight. The Turnastone fields were purchased in January 2003 by the Countryside Restoration Trust to save the meadows from being turned into a potato farm. The fields have remained unploughed for four hundred years, and the sale of the land for farming would have destroyed this history. Although they are no longer filled with water, the irrigation system, including the Trench Royal, are still obvious features of the plot.Turnastone Court Farm
/ref>

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vaughan, Rowland 17th-century English people People from Herefordshire 1559 births 1629 deaths