The Port
We'll start where we left off in the last chapter, looking south across the ford. We're now going to cross to the other bank, turn around and face north.
In the image below:
We see the two children playing at the ford, and to the left of them is the port house. Which is a good place to monitor who enters the town from the ford, and provides a night and day presence to protect the unloaded stock, waiting to be collected at the port. The image below this one shows the same shot, from exactly the same place today.
We see the two children playing at the ford, and to the left of them is the port house. Which is a good place to monitor who enters the town from the ford, and provides a night and day presence to protect the unloaded stock, waiting to be collected at the port. The image below this one shows the same shot, from exactly the same place today.
On the right of the above image, we see a drain opening out into the river. In 1011 this was an open ditch running (from this view) along the left of the ford road. The builders of Abbey mills have moved it to the right to prevent it from running very close to, and along the full length, of what is a massive retaining wall, running at right angles to the river.
The image below is another of Abbey mill, and the image below it, is almost the same angle in 1011, except the shot of Abbey mill was taken on the bank, and the 1011 image was taken out on the river.
In the image above, we have a closer look at the port, with it's stable and small lockup sheds for goods awaiting collection.
Above we see a birds eye view, that also shows the packhorse train, coming out the bottom of Rosemary hill, onto Druces hill.
If we poke our head around the corner where those railings are in the street view image above, jump down a couple of metres and travel back a 1010 years :)
We can view the length of the port, and look towards the land where the town bridge and the current centre of town, will be one day.