Water well - I finally found it! and 2 questions

[spot]

Hi All,
Ages ago I posted, looking for help on trying to locate a capped water well that I knew was "somewhere" in the back garden.
I'd unsuccessfully hired a dowser and tried hammering in a metal spike at various locations in an attempt to find the concrete cap.
Finally I managed to get a favour from a local surveying company who had a chap who lives close to me and he popped in with some Ground Penetrating Radar gear and did a sweep of the area we believed the well to be and he got a signal that he reckoned could be the cap about 3 feet down.
By pure chance, the previous owners daughter popped around a few days later and I took the opportunity to quiz her on where she remembered the wells location (it was capped in 1955 BTW) and her memory of its location was where the GPR had detected it. Job done I thought......
A couple of weeks ago I hired a small digger and set to work. I was most disappointed NOT to find the well, but I did find a metal pipe about 2 1/2 feet down and I remembered someone telling me that when the well was the water source to the house there was a pipe from the well to the kitchen and sure enought the pipe orientation was pointing back to the kitchen. So just carried on digging away from the house and about 8 feet later came across the cap, prised it open and as you can see from the pictures, for something that's at least 120 years old it looks in great condition and has water in it!
From ground level to the top of the well bricks is about 2 1/2 feet down. It's then a further 17 feet until you hit the water and the water is 6 feet deep.
A couple of questions....

Does anyone have an idea why the top of the well is 2 1/2 feet below ground level? And no, the ground level has not changed since it was capped.

I plan to now turn it into a "feature" in the garden and intend to get some reclaimed bricks to match the cottage and have a traditional wishing well style affair, but with an electric pump installed so I can use the water for gardening and a metal grill across the top to stop kids falling in.
To other well owners, what have you done with yours? Any top tips or inspiration you can give?

The one photo shows straight down the well and the other is standing back a little further. Note: There was just one 3" slab over the well, all the other thinner slabs I just had hanging around in the garden and used them to makes sure the soil didn't fall back in.

 

[DJH]

Nice well spot. The first thing that I notice in the well is that the bricks are laid in a very amateur fashion without mortar in the joints and the bricks look very smooth faced as if they could engineering bricks. In my experience the linings of wells were built to be watertight to stop both water leaking from the well and entering from the outside ground. Maybe it has been relined during it's 150 year life span and the original supply pipe which would almost certainly have been a lead one has been replaced by a very fresh looking galvanised iron pipe.

It will look well (no pun intended )with a wellhead built around it and a winch with a bucket would finish it off.

Years ago my insurance stated that the maximum depth I could work in a well was 12 feet...

Doug

 

[spot]

Hi Doug,
Interesting point about the bricks.
The house was built in 1894 and I understand that 'back in the day' they would've built the well before building the house so i'd guess it's at least 120 years old and was used as the water supply to the house untill 1955 so i'd be suprised if it was subject to contamination.
Maybe the bricks we can see are just a facing layer?
When I get a chance i'll dig a bit deeper and see what lies outside the ring of bricks.

 

[Penners]

It will look well (no pun intended )with a wellhead built around it and a winch with a bucket would finish it off.

Yes, with a little thatched roof over it, and a wooden pail on a windlass. Maybe finish it off with a cheery gnome winding the handle? :roll:

(Each to their own, Penners, each to their own).

That brickwork looks very new - I'd be astonished if it's 120 years old. As has already been suggested, it's either been installed to reinforce crumbling earlier brickwork, or the well itself isn't very old.

In view of the depth of the well cap below the ground, I wonder whether it was ever an open well. I think it's possible that it was always well (!) below ground level, with a pumped water supply to the house.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Nice find! I agree it looks very fresh and new though, so it must have been refaced?

As for why the top of it is below the surface of the ground -I agree with Mr P that very likely that is because it was in line with a pipe rather than winching a bucket up. However you do have to dig down for water, unless it's a spring. Our well is about 9ft below ground level, it's in a sunken scullery in the basement and a 19th C hand pump on the side of the house took it up to the tank in the attic from where it supplied the kitchen taps.

I'm afraid I can't be of help with any inspiration - our well is our only water source, except impure rainwater, and so we have to keep it dark, to prevent growth, and covered with a safe wooden lid, and then it goes through a state of the art filtration system before ending up in our taps.

Great idea to use it for the garden and to build something rustic around it to prevent people falling in. I prefer the simple well pictured in this blog to the ones with wooden roofs.

http://sworlandoblog.com/best-of-sw-orlando/gotha/

 

[DJH]

That's a good point about it being relined. If it was they would have built from the bottom up and bricks without mortar would.n't have stayed in position when building downwards so to speak...

Penners, I always knew deep down that you shared similar tastes to me!! I'd prefer a couple of gnomes myself alongside your cheery feller....

one waiting to go fishing maybe?



or one resting?



Yes, I made lead gnomes as well....

Doug

 

[spot]

That brickwork looks very new - I'd be astonished if it's 120 years old. As has already been suggested, it's either been installed to reinforce crumbling earlier brickwork, or the well itself isn't very old.

I have paperwork from the previous owner confirming the well was capped in 1955 and the house put onto mains water so that's at least 58 years since the bricks saw the light of day and if the well has been relined i'd imagine it would've been done a good few years before 1955, otherwise why bother with the hassle and expense?
But I agree, the bricks do look too good to be 120 years old. I'm intrigued and can't wait to do a bit more excavating

I've also found on the opposite side of the garden a soft water tank.
I found it when I nearly fell in it when clearing bushes and the hidden metal manhole cover started to collapse under me! It appears to be a large, underground galvanised metal tank about 12' deep with a brick 'entrance' and is fed by drains about 4" under the soil.

The house is a bit curious too as it has cavity walls which I understand was rather unusual for 1894.

 

[Moneypit]

I wonder when cavity walls first appeared. Our house is 1886, of brick construction with cavity walls. The wall ties are extra long bricks that extend fully from front to back face of the wall. Not much of a moisture barrier but they definitely won't rust like later cast iron types! What are your ties made of?

 

[MatthewC]

Doug

Looking at your photos above, please tell me how you have based your castings on a very accurate picture of Penners?

Matthew

 

[Penners]

How little you know me, Matthew.

Given my life of trouble, toil and sorrow, a cheery, gnomish smile rarely crosses my creased and drawn face.

 

[LadyArowana]

How little you know me, Matthew.

Given my life of trouble, toil and sorrow, a cheery, gnomish smile rarely crosses my creased and drawn face.

Maybe we could change that? :lol:

 

[paulb33]

'Curiouser & curiouser'...

Are you sure its a well? Not a soakaway/runoff from the house? The latter might explain the cruder construction.

Assuming its a well, perhaps the water table dropped over the years, requiring the bore to be narrowed? Whoever did it, they didn't fancy spending any longer down the hole than necessary. So, the bricks have been crudely(and quickly) stacked and backfilled with soil. Job done?

When the well became redundant, it would make sense to remove the first few courses of bricks, cap it and cover with soil. Hence, its below ground level.

 

[Penners]

Maybe we could change that?

Ah yes - what a jolly jape!

:evil:

 

[spot]

I wonder when cavity walls first appeared. Our house is 1886, of brick construction with cavity walls. The wall ties are extra long bricks that extend fully from front to back face of the wall. Not much of a moisture barrier but they definitely won't rust like later cast iron types! What are your ties made of?

Some sort of metal, most probably iron. I'll post a photo of one later when I get home. Sods law - when we installed an extractor fan in the bathroom the precise place we started drilling was where there was a wall tie so I have one as a souvenir

 

[spot]

'Curiouser & curiouser'...

Are you sure its a well? Not a soakaway/runoff from the house? The latter might explain the cruder construction.

This is definately a well and was the main water source to the house (hence the pipe that goes from it back to the kitchen).
We also have a soakaway and this is not it. :wink:

Guess i'll know more when I start a bit of excavating. If I don't post for a few weeks, send a search party.... :lol:

 

[paulb33]

(stating the bleedin obvious here....) Dig back from the bricks and you'll soon know if there is an outer wall with more 'integrity'...

 

[DJH]

Looking at your photos above, please tell me how you have based your castings on a very accurate picture of Penners?

Yes I must have Matthew, they are just so happy and cheery. It took ages to take the pictures as my eldest puddy wooddy wanted to join in the picture just for Penners. 8)

I can't actually belief I cast gnomes...mind you nothing was safe in those days from being cast in lead, I've got a Father Christmas one some where holding a lantern. I once cast a lead rat for a local fete for a 'Bat the Rat' feature!! The largest castings were four and a half ton counterweights down to a few ounces sea fishing weights.

Doug

 

[spot]

(stating the bleedin obvious here....) Dig back from the bricks and you'll soon know if there is an outer wall with more 'integrity'...

Yes, that's exactly what I intend to do.