By the time of the presentation of the plan for Parliament's consideration, Sir Francis Drake was no longer Mayor of Plymouth. He was, however, Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee which considered the Bill. It is therefore not surprising that the Royal Assent was soon received on March 29th, 1585. 

"For the preservation of the haven of Plymouth:

Drake undoubtedly realized that the current water supply was inadequate for the growing Port of Plymouth, and he may been part of a scheme with Grenville and Hawkins to create an important naval base at Plymouth to protect Britain's southern approaches.  This did happen a century later with the building of the dockyards, and the water supply certainly laid the groundwork for carrying out their early plan.  Since both Drake and Hawkins had heavy investments in Plymouth real estate, including the Town Mills, they also stood to gain from the improved infrastructure.

An early watermill

It is interesting to compare the four original reasons with what actually happened.  Water for naval and merchant shipping was not supplied until 1645 to the then Victualling Yard at Lambhay Hill and not until 1651 to merchant shipping at the Barbican.  The leat never ran near the built-up area of the town, and was of little use for fire fighting.  Since the Plymouth merchants were reclaiming the land around Sutton Pool to build warehouses, homes, and jetties, water to scour the Harbour of silt was hardly needed.  Finally, anyone found taking water from the leat for irrigation or any other purpose was heavily fined, so that improvements to the land on Dartmoor were, like the other reasons, but a cover for supplying water to the town’s mill at Millbay and to drive the waterwheels of the six new mills built soon after and leased to Drake.

At work on Drake's leat

Late 19th century

Courtesy of Steve Johnson

Construction was delayed until 1589 owing to war with Spain and was a major engineering feat for the time.  Thirty-five men made the cut in just over four months through about 18 miles of granite country.  Sir Francis was probably the contractor for the Corporation, and was granted a 67-years lease of six water mills along its course, two at Widey Mills and four at Town Mills.  Drake’s Leat, later known as Plymouth Leat, opened on April 24th 1591 and ran from the River Meavy down to the sea at the edge of Sutton Pool, although its course differed in many details from ‘Spry’s Plot’.  There is a legend, which perhaps has some basis in fact, assuming that the stream came from the sluice gate of the leat, and says: