Charles Hulse, a professor at Shepherd College in West Virginia, has done a lot of work with early German farms in the Shenandoah Valley.  You may want to contact him... [log in to unmask] 

-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jan Selmer
Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2014 5:48 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: stone-lined pools and channels

Possibly a retting pit for textile fibre plants (flax for example)?

Am 08.07.2014 23:46, schrieb Linda Stine:
> Someone sent me this- does this sound familiar?  For a dye pool?  Cistern?
> or?  I haven't seen it yet.
>
>
> "A few years ago I was with some people who were interested in a 
> homestead begun by a German family in 1760... and the stone foundation 
> and fireplace were still extant five years ago. In the 1970s someone 
> began building a house on top of it, but didn't quite finish.  Most 
> interesting is a channel cut in the ground in front of the house.  It 
> is a few feet wide and lined with cut stone.  It runs perhaps forty or 
> fifty yards to a deep, wide pool, also lined with cut stone and having 
> stone steps leading down into it.  The German immigrant who built it...wrote in his will that he was a weaver. "
>
> Linda
> at: [log in to unmask]
>