Supporting Results and Phantom Drains

Second Team

Following our excursion on Tuesday and apparent discovery of a grid pattern of drainage, a second team went onto an adjacent moor section on Thursday. Chris deliberately kept them in the dark as to Tuesday's results in order to avoid prediction.

Grid Pattern Continues

"Thursday went exactly the same as Tuesday (despite being in a new area) apart from some difficulty in locating (or at least getting a consistent line for the 10 yd drains. We certainly got the 5 yd pattern and we decided to focus on one of those lines which we could see with the pins, we brought all other pins into this line and really focused on getting a solid idea of exactly where that drain was. We ended up with 20 pins in the ground in a dead straight line, ...."

This report shows a separate team using dowsing rods to identify the same regular 5 yd separated drains intercepted by approx 10 yd drains and an arterial stone built culvert running below a dry clough.

"... went down into the next clough along from where we found the big culvert. We found exactly the same design of culvert in this clough with a similar amount of water flowing through it."

Failure to Expose Land Drains

The second team ran into the same issue as the first of not succeeding in exposing actual drains where the pattern indicated; ".... we dug two pits along this line to about 3’ and found nothing! We all agreed that the land looked undisturbed so stopped digging ...". 

First Excavations

Initial excavations based on rod crossings have so far revealed stone built culverts running underneath the dry gullies carrying a significant amount of fast flowing water. 

However, trial excavations on the grid pattern have proved initially disappointing. Several small digs revealed no ceramic or other material drains and in particular no evidence of disturbed ground from installation of drains.

Mole Drains

The initial disappointment in not finding physical drains on the moor itself is tempered by the possibility that mole drainage was installed which involves a deep plough with a bullet attachment at the bottom being dragged through the ground leaving a “soil pipe”; a continuous hole through the solid earth which acts as a drain. The regular 5 yd straight lines would be typical of this and, as the upper soil settles back together and heals over time, it would explain the lack of ground disturbance. Archives do show that Thomas Legh, who was responsible for the drainage, purchased a mole plough mid 1800's which would work to 30" depth though it is not know where it was used.

An exciting aspect is that this puzzling technique of Dowsing (or Divining) may even be detecting simple hollow tubes carrying water through the subsoil.