Town Ditch was a characteristic and historic name, as was Watercourse Alley. The former became an important throughfare to Foregate Street, and to satisfy a sentimental objection became Sansome Street. It is a pity the change was made for both were actually wet ditches which formed something of a moat, but formerly ran along the line of the Walls, by way into the public sewers, but formerly ran along the line of the Walls, by way of Blockhouse Fields into Frog Brook, which fed Castle Ditch and Mill.
Another spring, which was later used at the Cold Bath in the Butts, fed the northern ditch, but the volumn was never sufficient, for in 1644, the city authorities, ordered the spending of £35.11.8 on bringing the water from Barbourne Brook into the Town Ditch, to avoid the nuisance of standing water and filth in that ditch. Nothing seems to have been completed however.
