THE chronicles of an ancient dispute have helped archaeologists to discover a long-lost water mill and farmstead once run by Cistercian monks on the Yorkshire Wolds.

The site was discovered during a survey of the landscape around Wharram Percy, south of Malton, one of England's largest and best-preserved deserted medieval villages.

English Heritage, working with the Wharram Research Project, combed through ancient documents and used the latest scientific hardware to make the discovery.

The monks were from Meaux Abbey, which was founded in 1150 near Beverley, but now survives only as a series of earthworks.

A great deal is known about its history, land holdings, and also its misfortunes, thanks to the Chronicles of Meaux Abbey, a book penned by its 14th century abbot, Thomas Burton.

The chronicles state that the abbey established a large farmstead - known as a grange - 20 miles away near Wharram Percy, and that a water mill was soon added.

Archaeologists were unable to pinpoint its location, and it was thought that any remains may have been destroyed by the construction of the old Malton to Driffield railway.

However, previously unidentified mill sites were stumbled upon two years ago, and investigations with satellite mapping equipment found that the landscape tallied perfectly with that described by Abbot Burton.

Its historical details were recorded only because of a row that erupted when a mill built by Henry de Montfort, who gave the monks permission to use the stream in the 1150s, was taken over by Robert Percy, and he refused to acknowledge the monks' rights to use the water.

Updated: 10:48 Wednesday, February 04, 2004