Journal entry – John Grey – 27 Jan 1834

Monday 27th January 



Settled the Accounts for the repairs of the Mill & the Miller’s house & Offices at Newlands & received a payment from Bones of Throckley, hearing from him a long list of grievances and difficulties respecting the quantity of Water which it has cost him so much to overcome in the Pit, & the impossibility of collecting money from the farmers, in both of which, I believe, there is much truth. Received & communicated to the Board Armstrong’s reason for withdrawing his proposal for Whitley Mill.  Had a long examination of the Railway Plans with Mr Walker, by which it seems likely that Allerwash Mill may be removed, so that it would be unwise to expend money on repairs at present, except of the most temporary kind. Mr Walker would be glad to take an Acre or two of Ground in the west part of the Dilston Park Farm, where there is a thick seam of Clay, to make Bricks & draining tiles.  Being near the Turnpike Road, the damage by way leave would not be great, & it might be of advantage to the Estate & neighbourhood.  I have promised to look at the situation, with reference to his plan, & to receive a proposal of terms from him, before undertaking to recommend it to the Commissioners. I then rode out to Dipton Fell where we began today to plant a new ground from which the Wood has been cleared.  In the parts of the Wood that have been replanted two or three years ago, I observed that few of the Larch or fir tribes succeed, which I account for by the Ground having produced a Crop of that kind of Wood already, whereas the deciduous kinds take readily, especially the Oak & Ash. This is worthy of observation & I have been pressing it upon the notice of the Woodmen, showing them the waste of planting a great many trees of a kind that will not grow.  It is also quite analogous to other productions of the Soil, & hence the axiom in agriculture of observing a rotation by which the repetition of the same kind of Grain is kept as distant as possible; but the most striking instance of the kind is found in America where when a forest of Pine has been burnt down, in a few years the Ground is covered with all the deciduous trees that are common to the Country, but not one of such as formed the original forest.