IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Mill Lane, RADSTOCK, BA3 5LR

Coleford Mill, seen from a public footpath, once a track, that runs to Leigh-on-Mendip. This building is thought to date from 1794, just before construction started on the ill-fated Dorset & Somerset Canal. The mill worked until 1919 and was rescued from dereliction in the 1960s. A 15’ diameter breastshot waterwheel remained in situ within the structure in the 1980s. It was powered by the Mells Stream, which once drove many waterwheels in the valley between Nettlebridge and Frome. Mells is said to be a corruption of ‘mills’

Looking east toward the main part of the village. "Coleford was listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Colford, meaning the hill ford, possibly from the Old French col and ford, or alternatively the coal ford, a ford over which charcoal was carried." Copied from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coleford,_Somerset

Despite never being completed fully, the old Dorset and Somerset Canal aqueduct (known as the Hucky Duck) stands as a testament to the dream.

This is the Coleford aqueduct - part of the grand scheme to build the Dorset and Somerset Canal in the late eighteenth century. The plan was to link the Kennet and Avon Canal to Poole in Dorset, with some work being completed before the money dried up. It was never finished and the parts near here that did open were known locally as the Hucky Duck. Here a twin-arch section near Coleford spans private property.

A two-arched structure on the Dorset and Somerset Canal. The canal was never completed (only this Nettlebridge branch was tackled) and never used. There is even some doubt if all sections of the branch were dug, certainly the flight of boat lifts at the major change of level were never finished. A good view of this aqueduct is prevented by adjacent properties - the second arch is behind the hedge on the left. A view from the other side is even worse, unless permission to enter someone's garden is granted, when both arches are visible - see Image If not, the public footpath under the arch offers no views as thickly hedged in against the east side of the valley from a point immediately past the arch. A grade II listed building.

An aqueduct built as part of the Dorset & Somerset Canal, which was begun in 1797 but never completed. ‘Aqueduct’ was a rather new-fangled word for the Somerset colliers of the time and got corrupted to ‘Hucky Duck’. A public footpath is indicated this way,but turns right just under the bridge and before the gates. ahead runs onto private property at this point

An aqueduct built as part of the Dorset & Somerset Canal, which was begun in 1797 but never completed. ‘Aqueduct’ was a rather new-fangled word for the Somerset colliers and got corrupted to ‘Hucky Duck’. Only a generation ago I recall a retired miner in the Seven Stars in Timsbury avowing ‘Not in a twelvemonth ..’; he would never stoop to using the word ‘year’. A part of the world where change comes slowly

A little further along we find Image

This cutmark on a house in High Street is listed in the Benchmark Database: https://www.bench-marks.org.uk/bm161491 . See Image] for a wider view.

A single-track street threads past cottages once home to miners, though one or two appear to have been converted from pubs or ale houses