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WATERMEADOWS IRRIGATION SCHEME Built by the 4th Duke of Portland Built 1816- 1837 at a cost of £39,297 1s 1d, using stone robbed from the Kings’ Houses. John Evelyn Denison Esq. produced an excellent paper detailing all aspects of the system. The land in Clipstone Park in a farming sense was very poor. Wet, boggy land , associated with the Maun Valley. Dry, stony, sand on higher ground. With the flooddykes and drainage came a new prosperity to Clipstone. The dykes carried water from the Maun bearing the sewerage from nearby Mansfield and on release from sluices, it was possible to flood many acres. The system covered 300 acres but as a result of increased fertility, the grass and turnips being fed to yarded animals, producing manure which fertilised some 1500 acres. From extremely poor land the Duke produced something of an economic miracle, the results of which changed the course of Clipstone's future and very much made us what we are today. The system is now almost totally destroyed. Mining having dealt the final blow. Subsidence changing the levels of the land, rendering the scheme useless. However the drainage remains some 12ft. deep within the meadows adjoining the Maun. Without the Flooddykes, many of the local farms would not have existed. Most of the farmhouses date from the time of the Watermeadows being built. |
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