River Sence

Taken in 1911, this is a view from Bardon Hill looking towards where? Ellistown or Hugglescote? Two horses appear to be pulling a boat along what must be the River Sence. Courtesy of the Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester & Rutland. See the 'Wakes and Cricket' page for a similar view.

Note: Station Farm was next to the Bardon Hill train station and Canister Farm was south of the station.

Mr Harris: The Sence itself rises on Bardon Hill and flows down and flows under the A50 and cuts in half the meadow of the farm. In other words the River Sence runs right through the middle of the meadow, and underneath the line we’ve been talking about, the Burton to Leicester, through a culvert, and through the farms down to Hugglescote. It’s a fresh flowing stream.

Interviewer: Are there any fish?

Mr Harris: Yes, there’s been an odd, the common fish that, minnows and things, but I think there have been an odd - there are trout in it. Seen an odd heron down there and kingfishers, but generally speaking the more common birds. Well there is a large spinney – wood - called Canister Farm that it sort of divides the two farms. The spinney is part of Station Farm but it divides the land of the two farms. That borders onto the meadow and that’s quite an interesting aspect there because in that spinney are two springs and they, the farm has never been, has only latterly been coupled up to the mains for water. These springs supplied the farm and, incidentally, the station, because there was a hydron [?], that’s a pumping arrangement that is worked by the water from the rivers, in this case the River Sence, it’s dammed up and then it comes into the pump and lifts the pump up and forces the water, and the spring water from that spinney that we’ve just mentioned, comes into a tank and it’s then pumped up right up from the meadow to Station Farm to fill two big tanks in the barn. And also, the station house and the plate layer’s house had no water laid on and they used to come round here to the farm and fetch their water, and this was beautiful spring water coming up from this, as I said from these springs in Canister Spinney.

©EMOHA