Quote:
Originally Posted by Mathos 
All the ducks looked as happy as Larry, or as happy as ducks can look on what they would see as a really perfect day. 
I was unable to work out the need for the two 'gate posts' stuck in the river though. 
Perhaps they were a couple of Drake Posts though.
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Totally ignoring the fact that you have posted more pictures of streams just full of trout (
) I have done a bit of digging but Milldale does not come up on any of the interactive map sites!! Can you pinpoint it a bit more ?
The two pics show the remains of a water management system that was not uncommon in the past .
The heavy stones laid in the stream bed are whats left of a small dam or weir and the two 'Goalposts' are the remains of the control system.
These dams/wiers were for one of two purposes ( or sometimes both!)
1 To hold a supply of water in the village during the summer
2 To maintain a head of water for a seasonal small local mill ( Milldale is a good pointer to the latter ! )
The large worked stones are the foundations of the retaining wall that was as high as the top of the 'goalposts'.
That being so when water was required to be stored, heavy boards would be put against the Upstream side of the 'goalposts' and held in place by the water pressure letting the level rise to the top of the posts when it overflowed and formed a weir with a pond behind it.
The pic without the 'goalposts' - where the stream narrows, is where the small undershot waterwheel would have been (there would have been another set of 'goalposts' there at some time to control the flow from the pond to the water wheel and to maintain the level when the mill was not working)
It is all conjecture on the limited info but the layout shows a remarkable similarity to a "village weir" that was on the River Chess near Rickmansworth that I was involved in surveying during one of my home trips - Before the bloody M25 construction wiped it off the face of the earth !!
Cheers