Sheepwash on Ashfield Water, with Railings

The sheepwash on Ashfield Water, dating from the 19th century, consists of the remains of a sheepwash basin. It is constructed from squared drystone limestone blocks topped with large stone coping blocks. The walls stand approximately 1.25 meters high and enclose a roughly coffin-shaped space that measures about 11 meters long and 4 meters wide at its widest point. The eastern end is very narrow, while the western end features a return length of walling that forms a sluice-way or gateway. To the left of this, the walling extends about 25 meters alongside the road before returning at right angles for approximately 6 meters. There are remnants of a stone-paved floor within the small enclosure, although much of it is now overgrown as of October 1987. At the edge of the road, there is a set of railings made up of nine panels with square posts spaced about 2.5 meters apart. These posts support a top rail made of rod and a lower rail with small closely set vertices, all attached to the coping of the main structure. This site is an interesting historical survival, once much more common in the Downs area.