Walks of Medfield, MA
On the same day I visited Peak House Heritage Center and Medfield State Hospital National Historic Site, I took several walks in the area, including Shattuck Reservation & Noon Hill managed by the Trustees of Reservations, Medfield Rail Trail, and Kingsbury Pond Grist Mill. The colorful fall leaves made the woods even prettier than usual.
Noon Hill and Shattuck Reservation share a parking area near the Medfield Sportsmen’s Club. The park surrounding Noon Hill contains 204 acres, while the hill is about 370 feet in height. The centerpiece of the park is Holt Pond, a manmade body of water created in 1764 with the damming of Sawmill Brook. A half-mile trail runs around the pond. Interestingly, although Holt is a common name, I could find no people with this first or last name buried in Medfield. When searching the rest of Norfolk County, all those with the surname Holt were born in 1811 or later. As for neighboring Shattuck Reservation, it is slightly larger at 245 acres. Both properties were clearcut and used for farming during the 19th century, so many stone walls remain on the properties.
Medfield Rail Trail is part of Bay Colony Rail Trail, a multiuse path planed to extend through Medfield, Dover, Needham, and Newton. Upon completion, it is expected to be seven miles in length. The trail was originally the Newton Highland Branch originally opened by the Boston & Albany Railroad in 1886, although sections of the railroad had been constructed as far back as 1848 by the Boston & Worcester Railroad. The line was bought by the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), now called the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) in 1958. This property is still owned by the MBTA, but towns can make a free 99-year lease on the property to maintain as a rail trail.
My final stop was Kingsbury Pond Grist Mill maintained by Medfield Historical Society. The post-and-beam mill is currently believed to have been built around 1718 by Joseph Clark. Strangely, although I could find five men called Joseph Clark buried in Medfield, none of them were alive during the building of the mill. In 1889, it was transitioned from a grist mill to a sawmill. While always water powered, the mill has used two different types of wheels: a breastshot wheel during the 18th and 19th century, and a turbine during the 20th century. Currently, the mill has a reproduction breastshot wheel, and the historical society hopes to restore the original turbine.
