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Devonport Leat | |
|---|---|
 Devonport Leat looking East towards Cramber Tor at Raddick Hill Falls | |
| Coordinates | 50°34′49″N3°57′43″W / 50.5802°N 3.9620°W /50.5802; -3.9620 |
| Location | |
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TheDevonport Leat is aleat inDevon constructed in the 1790s to carry fresh drinking water from the high ground ofDartmoor to the expanding dockyards at Plymouth Dock (which was renamed asDevonport, Devon on 1 January 1824).[1]
It is fed by five Dartmoor rivers: theWest Dart, the Cowsic, the Hart Tor Brook, theRiver Meavy and the Blackabrook (this last apparently was the first portion to supply Plymouth Dock).
Dartmoorgranite was used to construct the water channel, as well as a smallaqueduct and a tunnel.
It was originally designed to carry water all the way to Plymouth Dock, a total distance of 27 miles (43 km), but has since been shortened[2] and the operational part of the leat now stops near theBurrator Reservoir dam. Some of the water goes through underground pipes to the water treatment works atDousland; 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 disusedYelverton toPrincetown Railway. Before the piped supply to Dousland was installed, the water was used for ahydroelectric turbine near Yelverton Reservoir and fed by a 12-inch-diameter (300 mm) pipe.
The Devonport Leat begins a short distance to the north ofWistman's Wood[3] at an altitude of over 410 metres (1,350 ft) and twice passes close toTwo Bridges[4] (following the contours up the Cowsic valley in between) before heading towardsPrincetown.[5] Its water supply now ends up inBurrator Reservoir.[6] It follows a meandering path across the moor, carefully selected by engineers to follow the natural contours of the land.[7]
