MSO8563 - Post-medieval water power at Great Bradley Farm (Monument)

A farm waterwheel, 16 feet in diameter and 2 feet 9 inches wide with 56 wooden buckets was noted to be present on the site in 1977. It had an outward facing rim gear (568 teeth) but all other gearing removed. Water was brought to the wheel by a leat 850 yards long, now derelict, but traceable from Bradley Pond. The last four yards of the leat were culverted in an 18 inch diameter pipe. [1] Nothing now exists of the wheel. [2] A ditch visible as an earthwork on aerial photographs of the 1940s onwards is the remains of a leat formerly supplying a water wheel at Great Bradley. Although only circa 124 metres can be seen on the aerial photographs, the Somerset SMR stated that the leat can be traced northwards for 850 metres to its source at Bradley Pond. The leat is very similar in appearance to, and could be confused with, the field gutter water meadow gutters immediately to the west. [3,4] The leat is clearly depicted on the 1st and 2nd Edition Ordnance Survey maps. The GIS mapping for the record has been edited to reflect this. It is not clear what route the water course took through the farmstead, or which building housed the water wheel, but it is possible the water drained into a pond shown at SS 8582 3404 on these maps. [6-8] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [9,10]