EDO6246 - White Mill, Shapwick; observations and recording 2009

Observations and recording during habitat enhancement works. The work was carried out in dry weather conditions and commenced with excavation of a level track along the western bank beside the northern mill leat, to allow access to the site, and then excavation of the mill leat. The access track was excavated to a maximum depth of 0.6m along the highest part of the bank and between 2-3m in width, extending south-east for a distance of approximately 25m from the modern culvert at the northern end of the leat. The cutting revealed a simple sequence of chalky loam topsoils (0.25 - 0.3m thick), overlying a re-deposited siltyloam with frequent pieces of chalk and post-medieval finds. These were considered to be an accumulation of soils and domestic rubbish from the 19th century occupation of the mill, possibly the result of earlier leat clearings. Clearing of the leat revealed a 9m section of wall located 12 m north west of the mill building. This wall consisted roughly worked unmortered heath stone blocks laid horizontally into the underlying chalk. National Trust have indicated that these appear to be the remains of an earlier building, possibly related to medieval buildings discovered beneath the mill in the 1990s. A detailed section across the leat is provided for a location at the northern end of the leat where the wdith is narrower (1m) and the overlying soils are deeper (0.45m) than closer to the buildings.Further examples of 19th and 20th century materials were identified and assoicated with the silting up and drying out of the leat. Finally a riffle was contruction on the site of the old weir, which entialed extension of the access track to the north of the brick culvert. A machine scrape of the topsoil only revealed no finds. The bank was built up using clean material to allow a 13 tonne, 360' excavator to run into the river. The riffle was constructed using clean Portland Stone laid over the remains of the weir - no excavation or removal of the weir structure was undertaken.