8 4 
A Description of the Ground Excavated 
IN LAYING THE WATER-MAINS 
AT 
EAST AND WEST AYTON; near SCARBOROUGH. 
By the Rev. W. C HEY, M.A. 
TN the spring of 1901, the long-talked of scheme for bringing 
^ a water supply to the villages of East and West Ayton 
was carried out. 
Visitors to Forge Valley will be familiar with certain 
cottages in the ravine, where refreshments are provided, and 
have probably noticed an old stone trough not many paces 
from them, into which a stream of water gushes through an 
orifice, known locally as “ The Old Man’s Head.” It is from 
the same springs which feed this trough that the Ayton water 
supply has been derived. 
About half-way up the side of the ravine, deep trenches 
were driven into the slope and abundance of water found, 
which is collected in the first instance in a globular receptacle, 
and thence conveyed by metal pipes to the road below 7 , and so 
carried by the side of the river for about a mile to the point 
where a narrow rocky gill enters Forge Valley from the east. 
The pipes climb the south bank of this gill almost perpendicu¬ 
larly, and discharge the water into a large dome-crowned 
reservoir, which is excavated in a knoll of glacial sand and 
gravel which are here piled up to a depth of nine feet. The 
excavation was altogether about sixteen feet deep, and entered 
seven foot of brashy corallian rocks below 7 the glacial beds. 
A very fine section of sand and gravel was here exhibited, 
but no regular succession could be made out, sand and gravel 
