A community excavation within a leat located above Papplewick Lane in Papplewick was undertaken, in order to determine how water was moved from the north side of the road to the continuing leat on the south side. The works were carried out over 23 days from 2015 to 2023. The water system for the Robinson Mills was constructed between 1778 and 1830, although there may have been a mill (or mills) on this site before that. The leat runs toward an oval shaft and wall structure, which was excavated between 2009-2011. The 1847 estate map does not give a clear indication of how the water crosses the road. Excavations revealed the gentle sloping base of the leat, a sluice structure cutting into the leat banks, alignments of nails and bolts, and a substantial bank of clay. The features seemed to represent a series of alterations to the water system related to the implementation of a 42ft diameter waterwheel at New Mill further downstream. The complexity of the Papplewick Lane Leat site required a large degree of hypothetical reconstruction in order to ascertain a coherent sequence of events for this particular part of the Robinsons water system. It is clear that there were a number of alterations that are almost archaeologically invisible due to their short-lived nature, but these constant changes do show that successive revisions of the system were required in order to ensure it worked efficiently.