Talk:Leat

message: The OED doesn't document the spelling lete, which is a different archaic word meaning "leach".  Ortolan88 (it was used in a legal document in Cornwall in 1588 to refer to an artifical water course) 82.38.112.68 20:15, 25 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Spelling

message: 'Not just to a watermill' but to any industrial process, hammer mill, forge or furnace bellows, mineral washery/classification process , dye works, irrigation system and, no doubt, many others  which need lots of water.  The word, although not common in recent times, has been  used more widely than the article suggests. I think I have also seen it spelt 'leet'  82.47.176.254 22:07, 11 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Good point! I have added this to the article.  Peterkingiron 23:23, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

text: Yes, so is an elevated wooden channel taking water from a leat to a watermill.  I think I leat has to be on the ground.  There are a lot of technical words that could usefully be explained as part of the article, including penstock.  Peterkingiron 21:39, 26 May 2007 (UTC)

text: The Elan aqueduct (not aquaduct) is a pipeline conducting Welsh water to Birmingham.  I assume "leat" should refer to an open air watercourse, but piped systems can have siphons, so that they do not have to follow the contours.  An aqueduct can also be a bridge carring a canal over a road; this is certainly not a leat.  Peterkingiron (talk) 18:08, 24 January 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: As a matter of common usage in Wales, leats discharge their water to the same watercourse that they started from. Channels which take water from one catchment to another are rarely (if ever ?) called leats but are called catch-water channels, aqueducts or feeder channels. I doubt whether this distinction is invariable and I can't find a confirmatory source but it might give a little more clarity to the original use of the word leat.  Velela  Velela Talk   20:18, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

text: Thanks for your quick responces I've found a couple of sources that describe a leat as channel specifically serving a watermill (including Chambers 20 Century Dictionary,1962), but also several that desribe it as an "artificial water trench" esp one feeding a mill. So I guess I'll make the change to a more general desription. I wont bother sourcing since this hardly seems controversial.Pete the pitiless (talk) 20:21, 26 January 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: I certainly regard the channel to a watermill as the usuaql use, but some one (above) suggested that other artificial watercourses could also be leats.  Peterkingiron (talk) 17:39, 28 January 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Usage

message: A good deal of work is needed to expand this article.  This follows on from the last diuscussion.  I would suggest that a paragraph (at least) is needed on each of the following: 
*irrigation - generally; water meadows
*mills - have industrial archaeologists developed a system of classification of such leats?
*water supply to towns monsastries etc
*water supply for mining - to operate waterwheels for pumping; for hushing; for other alluvial mining; for ore preparation 
Please feel free to add to this list.  I would recommend that detailed discussion of the purpose for which the water was used should NOT appear here, but there should be a link to a main article on it using a "main" template.  We have material on a few of these topics already by there is a lot missing.  Peterkingiron (talk) 09:32, 9 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Article expansion needed

message: Would "leat" be a more accurate name for these ditches in the Upper Harz mining area? One dictionary also translates the original word "Graben" as "loading ditch" in a mining context. --Bermicourt (talk) 19:49, 27 May 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[Upper Harz Ditches]] 

message: A mill race is a leet associated with the water wheel of a mill. Stuffed cat (talk) 23:56, 4 February 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Mill Race