Above the spring, on the upward path to the street, the National Society of Daughters of the American Colonists have placed a stone seat in remembrance of the women who came in the ship Ann in 1623. From here the brook in its little valley can be seen winding to the sea; on its banks, the gardens which still bloom behind the old houses on Leyden Street, occupy the same ground as those “garden plottes” where the Pilgrim women cultivated the herbs which they consigned to England, three hundred years ago. Perhaps no gardens in America can claim a longer history of continuous use.
At the mouth of the brook was the herring weir, built before 1627 to control the annual run of herring up the stream to the fresh water ponds above. The herring still run in the spring through a similar weir, and are still a source of revenue to the town.
The Town Brook with its springs of “sweet water,” the herring fishing, and the ford which lead to the Indian encampment on the southern hill, made one of the important centers of the community life, and the gardens and sunny exposures of the little houses on the bank, protected by the guns on the Fort Hill above them, must have given some quiet and happy moments to the anxious and homesick Pilgrim women.
Burial Hill
Called Fort Hill until 1698
THE FORT
On the top of the hill, beyond the row of the first houses, and overlooking the town, the Pilgrims in 1622–23 built with great labor, a fort and stockade; Governor Bradford describes it:
“A fort of good timbers, both strong and comely, which was a good defense, made with a flat roof, and battlements, and on which their ordinance was mounted, and where they kept constant watch, especially in time of danger.”
In 1633, he further says—“Our ancient work of fortification, by continuance of time is decayed, and Christian wisdom teaches us to depend upon God in the use of all good means for our safety.” It was therefore ordered by the Governor that the fort should be repaired, and the stockade enlarged. In 1635 and in 1642, it was again repaired, and in 1643 a watch tower was built nearby. This was of brick, two stories high, and contained a fireplace with a chimney.