Modern millpond.


A watermill is presumed to have existed at Bishopscourt farm for at least a century and a half on the basis of the presence of a 220m-long leat marked on the Ordnance Survey 1:2500 First Edition mapping of 1869.


Additional water storage is provided by a smaller millpond located immediately upstream of the main reservoir (see PRN 1105.30) and centred at the grid reference provided. The millpond is impounded by a dam across the width of the valley. It covered an area of 0.2 acres in 1869, and derived its water from three of the four watercourses supplying the catchment.


A channel at the northern end of the dam connects to the lower pond.


The mill presumably served latterly to process farm produce, though any predecessor on the site may have additionally processed grain collected as the bishop's tithe. The millponds also served to regulate the waterflow through the landscaped grounds of the Bishop's Glen.