Expanding our vocabulary

Having talked to my friend Heather who lives with her family in a beautifully converted barn in Devon, I now know what the water is that used to run along the edge of the property to feed the workshops next door and seeps into our cellar when it rains hard (see posting below). It's a leat.
" A leat (also lete or leet) is the name, common in the south and west of England, for an artificial watercourse, or aqueduct, supplying water to a watermill or its mill pond. Leats may also deliver water for mineral washing and concentration, for irrigation, or to a dye or other industrial works."en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leat
Heather says that she has one running under her bedroom but that the architect dealt with it by concreting it over and raising the floor of the house. Their's has been there for 500 years. So, I think we can live with ours.