Leaking Leat

Some friends of ours (Malcolm & Carla) have a farm.

This is Malcolm & Carla (Malcolm is the tall one at the back).

On their farm they have two Leats; this is a description of a leat from Wikipedia:

 A leat (also lete or leet) 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. Other common uses for leats include delivery of water for mineral washing and concentration, for irrigation, to serve a dye works or other industrial plant, and provision of drinking water to a farm or household.

One of the leats on the farm runs a hydroelectric plant and the other one used to be used to power water wheels, which gave power to tin stamps. Tin stamps were machines that were used to break up tin ore, so that the tin could be extracted from it. This is what a stamp looked like:

A couple of weeks ago Malcolm noticed that the water from one leat was leaking, in several different places, into the other one. When this happens he has to walk through the leat and try and block the leaks. So I volunteered to help which meant I had to buy some wellies & a cap so that I could look the part:

What do you think?


So we walked through the Leat and I ended up being the Leat Menders' mate (which means I was holding the tools and passing them to Malcolm when he needed them).


Anyway, it was a successful piece of work and the leaks were repaired.


This is Malcolm and I after the event:

This was another new experience for me, I enjoyed the afternoon and we had a good laugh, which is always beneficial.