Tonedale Mill and Tone Works, Wellington, Somerset: an archaeological landscape assessment of the water management system
Author(s): Nicky Smith, Fiona Small, Rebecca Pullen
This report examines the water management systems associated with Tonedale Mill and Tone Works, former cloth-manufacturing mills near Wellington in Somerset. The mills were founded by Thomas Fox in around 1800 and continued to be operated by his descendants until 1999. The mills worked together as an integrated woollen textile factory, with spinning and weaving undertaken at Tonedale Mill, cloth-finishing and dyeing at Tone Works, and effluent treatment at the adjacent grease works. Ample supplies of water were needed for power and cloth-making processes. For this they exploited the River Tone and two tributaries, the Westford Stream and Rockwell Green Stream, modifying and diverting aspects of the existing watercourses. Much of the water management infrastructure remains intact, with key elements surviving as a network of culverts, channels, leats, weirs, sluices, ponds and footbridges in the wider landscape. In 2021 and 2022, Historic England’s (HE) Archaeological Investigation Team undertook desk-based research, aerial investigation, and site visits. Additional contextual research was undertaken in 2023. The work clarifies the nature, extent and importance of the water management features, charts their development and examines the interconnections between them. This information will inform HE’s advice on regeneration proposals and help to underpin future site interpretation.
- Report Number:
- 89/2022
- Series:
- Research Department Reports
- Pages:
- 115
- Keywords:
- Post Medieval Aerial Photograph Interpretation Aerial Photography Cropmark Industrial Heritage Aerial Investigation and Mapping
