1104 



STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part IV. 



the extensive district alluded to, called the Wlldmoors. The 

 extent and nature of this Improvement is such as to deserve a 

 particular and detailed description. Some adjoining proper- 

 ties have benefited by this work, and contributed to the ex- 

 pense of it, -which was done under the authority of an act of 

 parliament. But as almost the whole of the land belongs 



to the Marquess of Stafford, and the expense having been chiefly 

 borne by him, the direction of its progress, and its preservation 

 hereafter, is entirely vested in a surveyor chosen by hisLordshii'. 

 These -moors consisted of an extensive tract, amounting, with 

 the land similarly circumstanced, to near twelve hundred 

 acres. The soil is composed of a fine black peat, incumbent 



on a bed of red sand, full of water. They are bounded chiefly 

 by 'the upland part of these estates, and surround the parish of 

 Ivynnersley, which also belongs to it, and which is composed 

 of some of the finest turnip and barley soil in the kingdom. 

 They had evidently formed the bottom of an extensive lake. 

 The different brooks from the surrounding country held their 

 course through them. These brooks are known in the country 

 by the name of Strines, being distinguished from each other 

 by the name of the places from which, or past which, they 

 flow. Their course to the Team (which river drains the 

 whole of this country mto the Severn) was devious and crook- 

 ed in the extreme, injuring to a great extent the land through 

 which they ran. 



A great proportion oftliese moors was occupied by the tenants 

 of the adjoining farms, who turned their stock in upon them 

 for a portion of the summer season only. During the rest of 

 the year it was impossible to use them. They afforded but a 

 small quantity of food, and were in most places so wet, that it 

 was at all times difficult to walk over them, it being necessary 

 to select the hardest places to step on. They were covered 

 with water after almost every severe rain, owing to which the 

 inhabitants of the neighborhood were subject to frequent 

 attacks of ague. The aoyoining lands, besides, to an extent ex- 

 ceeding six hundred acres, were kept in nearly a state of na- 

 ture, owing to there being no level by which they could be 

 drained, while this extensive district continued subject to such 

 inundations. 



The diffkuUy which occurred, in drcuning this tract of land, 

 arose from the want of level, and from the river Team being 

 pounded so high by the mill pools, as to throw the water back 

 to a great distance upon the land. The plan for draining this 

 extensive district was extremely well conceived, and judici- 

 ously laid out, in the double view of securing this object, and 

 of interfering as little as possible with private property and the 

 existing establishments situated on the Team. It was sug- 

 gested by John Bishton, Esq. the first commissioner under 



the Act. The great object was to gain as much additional 

 level as would create a "run throughout the whole extent of 

 the moorleinds. This was to be obtained by beginning the cut 

 which W'is to carry off" the water a considerable way lower 

 down the Team than the water had hitherto been discharged 

 into that river, and a good deal below the mill -pool at Long, 

 which occasioned this poundage. The original courses of the 

 strines were straightened and widened, but they were still 

 made to convey the water from the uplands, and to discharge 

 them into the Team in their original direction. To prevent 



them overflowing the adjoining lands, and to cut off" the effects 

 ' oi' the Team on the upper moors, these 

 brooks were embanked for the whole length of their course 



through the Wlldmoors. These are technically called argue 

 banks. At the back of these banks deep ditches were carried, 

 but in a more direct line than the course of the strines. Into 

 these ditches the drainage of the moor-lands is emptied. The 

 level which was thus brought from the river Team, from be- 

 low Long Mill, was carried in a tunnel under the Shrewsbury 

 canal, and was conducted below the several strines in syphon 

 culverts, and thus communicated with the ditches described, 

 as having been made behind the banks which confined the 

 waters of these brooks. 



In some instances, it has been necessary to construct one set 

 of culverts over another, in order that the waters coming fi-om 

 the uplands may be kept in the several brooks through which 

 they had constantly flowed, and that this water flowing from 

 the uplands might not fall into the back drains ; it being again 

 explained, that the water flowing from the higher grounds is 

 still confined to the original strines or brooks on an upper 

 level ; the drainage water alone of the moor-lands beini^ 

 thrown into the back drains. Thus has a great additional 

 level been obtained, and the whole of this district is now en- 

 tirely relieved of water, and such a thing as a flood has not 

 been known for years. This district is, in some instances, so 

 flat, that the old course of the Preston strine, which formerly 



conducted the water of that brook in one direction, has, with 

 little difficulty, been made a part of the drainage, and to carry 

 the drainage water in exactly the contrary direction, a new 

 channel having been cut for the strine. Taking advantage cf 



this drainage, main ditches, upon a regular system, have been 

 carried into all the neighboring parts of the estate, thereby 

 enabling the landlord and the tenafit to execute various other 

 imirrovcments. 



