A note on William Smith's drainage works near Churchill

Abstract

This note deals with drainage works in the parish of Churchill designed by Smith in 1818 and starts by describing a recently discovered sheepwash, likely to have been present when Smith lived in Churchill as a child in the 1770s. It includes elements akin to hatches, a term used to describe water control structures in his 1806 book on irrigation. With his local background and training by Edward Webb he was well equipped to design drainage and irrigation works and so during a visit to Churchill in late 1818 he designed an irrigation and drainage scheme for the local land owner. These works, noted in his diary, have been located on the lower section of the Sars Brook and comprise the construction of round arched bridges, a sluice and stop locks, together with 1.75 kilometres of new channel and a potential cut-off of a meander in the River Evenlode.