Sheepwash On Ashfield Water, With Railings

ST 83 SW MERE BURTON

2/12 Sheepwash on Ashfield Water, with railings.

II

Remains of sheepwash basin. Probably Cl9. Squared drystone limestone blocks to large stone coping blocks. Walls are c1.25 m high enclosing a roughly coffin-shaped space c.ll m long overall and 4 m wide at the widest; the right hand (east) end is very narrow, and at the left end a return length of walling former a sluice-way or gateway. Left of this the walling runs c25 m alongside the road, then returns at right angles for c6 m. There are remanants of a stone paved floor in the small enclosure, but much of this now (October 1987) overgrown. On the road edge a set of railings in 9 panels with square posts at c2.5 m centres carrying a top rail of rod, and a lower rail with small close set vertices all set to the coping of the main structure. An interesting historical survival, once much more common in the area of the Downs.

Listing NGR: ST8250732576