The Plas Crug landscaped avenue, running roughly 640m generally north-west to south-east between the site of Plas Crug Lodge (at SN58598166) & Plas Crug (at SN59018118), appears to preserve the course and possibly much of the structure, of an embanked mill stream springing from a weir on the Rheidol and feeding the Aberystwyth town mill (Nprn24693), mentioned in 1280.

Early 19th century maps show a mill stream, originating at a weir on the Rheidol (SN58958087), passing north around Plas Crug, where a change in ground level (at SN58988119), may indicate a further weir or dam.
The present form of Plas Crug Avenue may preserve the lay-out of the mill stream, with the centre roadway representing the leat itself, whilst the flanking footpaths are laid out along the course of the stream embankments. In places it is possible to discern slight changes in height between the paths and the central roadway.
At SN58598166 the avenue/leat debouches into Alexandra Road. The bus-station, railway station and school, along the south-eastern side of this road can be seen to have been built upon the line of a dam which may have ponded a substantial pool, fed both by the Plas Crug leat and a second stream, flowing from the north-east along the line of Poplar St. from a pond at the southern end of Pound Place.A rise in the roadway at the junction of Stanley Road and Alexander road indicates the course of the dam to the north-west of the Plas Crug-Alexandra Road junction.
From the south-western end of Alexandra Road (at SN58408155) the mill stream flowed immediately to the south-east of, and below Mill Street and the town walls.

A large sherd of 2nd-3rd century AD Roman mortarium was recovered from a disturbed context at SN58908125, close to Plas Crug (Davies 1997). The make-up of the mill-stream revettement can itself be considered a secondary context, and the find can only be thought of as indicating an original deposition in the general vicinity of the findspot.

Sources: Crawford's 'Plan of Scyborfawr etc' (1819) & Wood's 'Map of Aberystwyth' (1834) - reproduced in:
Jones (ed.) 1977'Aberystwyth 1277-1977';
Lewis 1980 'Born on a Perilous Rock' 3rd ed., 23, 221;
Davies 1997 (Ceredigion 13.1), 6-8.

J.Wiles 23.09.02
J.Wiles 23.09.02