London (England) -- Description and travel; London (England) -- History -- 16th century -- Sources; London (England) -- Surveys
how the said river was in old time, and that they leave nothing that
may hurt or stop it, but keep it in the same state that it was wont to
be.” So far the record. Whereupon it followed that the said river was
at that time cleansed, these mills removed, and other things done for
the preservation of the course thereof, notwithstanding never brought to
the old depth and breadth; whereupon the name of river ceased, and it
was since called a brook, namely, Turnmill or Tremill brook, for that
divers mills were erected upon it, as appeareth by a fair register-book,
containing the foundation of the priory at Clarkenwell, and donation of
the lands thereunto belonging, as also divers other records.
This brook hath been divers times since cleansed, namely, and last of
all to any effect, in the year 1502, the 17th of Henry VII., the whole
course of Fleete dike, then so called, was scowered, I say, down to the
Thames, so that boats with fish and fuel were rowed to Fleete bridge,
and to Oldborne bridge, as they of old time had been accustomed, which
was a great commodity to all the inhabitants in that part of the city.
In the year 1589 was granted a fifteenth, by a common council of the
city, for the cleansing of this brook or dike; the money amounting to a
thousand marks, was collected, and it was undertaken, that by drawing
divers springs about Hampstead heath into one head and course, both
the city should be served of fresh water in all places of want; and
also, that by such a follower, as men call it, the channel of this
brook should be scowered into the river of Thames; but much money
being therein spent, the effect failed, so that the brook, by means
of continual encroachments upon the banks getting over the water, and
casting of soilage into the stream, is now become worse cloyed and
choken than ever it was before.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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