Water Well Project

[Yokel Matt 918]

To anyone thinking about clearing out a well yourself that you happen to find in your garden i'd recommend asking yourself a few very fundamental questions starting with 'how much do you like living', followed closely by 'how expensive will this be' and finally 'what's the point'?!!

 

If ever I started a job thinking it was a good idea and then began to regret it this was it - that said now its finished I'm very proud of it.

 

When we moved into our house one of the elderly neighbours asked if we were going to look for the well that was in our driveway. It wasn't listed on the deeds and our other neighbours thought the old fella was mad but he'd lived here all his life and remembered drinking out of it when he was a boy... he's now 96.

 

Here is where he thought it was... under the tree 'somewhere'.

 

 

Anyway, there was lots to do on the new house... kitchen, bathroom, painting and decorating etc so I got my priorities in order and after id finished the chicken coup started looking for the well. The tree didn't let a lot of light in the house anyway and blocked some nice views so I set about getting that down which was easier said than done as it had grown well above the VERY close power cables and had the neighbours BT phone line going through the middle of it.

 

 

Once that was down and the stump ground out we were left with a sodding great mound of earth... 4/5 tons of it that we hand-balled into a trailer with shovels. To our amazement we found the well but were disappointed to see that, once we removed the capping of concrete lintels, that it had been completely filled in with hardcore. Before discussing it with the wife I started bucketing it out onto the driveway and it wasn't long before I needed a ladder and a rope for the bucket.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Things then started getting silly - I got to the end of my 3 section ladder and so borrowed my neighbours 3 section and strapped the two together. It wasn't until we got to the bottom of the two that it dawned on me... I don't know anyone with another big ladder and also that a cheepy domestic Homebase bucket full of hardcore being lifted 20 above your head (by the wife) in a confined space or around 2.5 feet in diameter probably invalidated my life insurance.

 

 

Time to put my hand in my pocket and hire some proper equipment, access tripod, electric fast winch, manual safety winch, bosons chair metal tipping bucket. Now we were cooking and with a couple of mates we made good progress. There were a couple of tense moments when a broken (but still connected) lintel was found and simply carabineer connected to the exposed steel hovering above me and a few occasions where a full bucket got stuck near the top because the wire wasn't fed onto the spool properly.

 

 

The worst thing was the air though... or lack of it. In the end we resorted to borrowing my neighbours electric flymo leaf blower and hoiked it up and down the well to stir the air up. Anyway, at 40 foot (and over 15 tons of rubble) we hit the water table and called it a day. It wasn't yet fully empty but it had been an exceptionally dry summer and adding drowning to the list of ways to die on this job wasn't appealing.

 

 

 

Next was the surround - we hired a local bloke to construct a dry stone wall effect surround using local stone and got the local blacksmith to make up a galvanised grating.

 

 

Once this was in place it just needed a wooden cover which took me a bit of time to get right but there you have it - done.

 

 

I measured the depth this morning and there was 30 foot of water in it.... glad I didn't go any deeper although i'll always wonder what treasures may lurk in the bottom!

 

Edited February 20, 2016 by Yokel Matt

[smithie 2,444]

Most intresting post I read on here for a while.

 

Thats a cracking job you have done.

[stevo79 569]

Top draw that mate, what a great project. Fair play to your neighbour. Are you using any of the water?

Well done nice job??????

[Tiercel 6,986]

Absolutely brilliant thread. All you need now is a sign for The Olde Wishing Well. Well done on all the hard work, makes you think though what it took to build it in the first place.

 

TC

[Yokel Matt 918]

Cheers gents - the old boy is made up that we've got the well going again. The water is very nice, I keep keening to get it tested but it's clear as gin now and tastes good.

[mackem 29,940]

Out of likes but that's fantastic,what a beautiful feature for the garden,can you not get one of those powerful magnets people use to recover things from rivers,drop it to the bottom see if there's anything down there?

[devon flighter 421]

credit to you ! old crafts, restoration ,historical interest and more well done for completing it "especially with moving house and all that entails ,plus the ballllls to get in there in the first place

[Yokel Matt 918]

Dead right TC - Hats off to the guys that built it in the first place, natural stonework down to 25 ft then through layers of bedrock, bells out like shallot at the bottom to around 3.5 /4 ft in diameter and you can see what looks like tool marks on the less exposed parts. A dangerous feat of engineering!

 

I reckon I owe it a few quid already then Mac as I had enough wishes / prayers when I was down there!... Still have the odd nightmare as well DF!

Edited February 20, 2016 by Yokel Matt

[Rabid 1,936]

Excellent read and good on you for doing it, impressed isn't a good enough word.

[Gaz_1989 9,539]

What a fantastic read. Some graft has gone into that. Fair play.

 

Just read it to my missus and she wants me to ask if the old man is still alive and has he seen it? Haha. Bloody women.

[socks 32,253]

Best read on here for a long long time .. I thoroughly enjoyed that ... You put some serious work into that and the end result is stunning

[trenchfoot 4,243]

I wouldnt dig that deep for all the terriers in Yorkshire. Get a pump in it and feed the house! but seriously, grand job. Buying your own place with special needs can be a life affirming project!

[sussex 5,803]

Done a superb job on that Matt , great thread .. Well done ..

[Yokel Matt 918]

Cheers for the comments fellas.

 

For every hour spent on it there was probably 10 of me stood just staring at it thinking 'Shit'. I had to take a whistle down there towards the end as the guys up-top couldn't hear me when I was shouting for the bucket to be lifted or for air... Which was disconcerting. Also had a few lumps from the odd bit of of tile / brick that fell in by accident, luckily nothing bigger came back down.

 

Yes the old boy is still about - keeps telling the other neighbours 'I told you so!!''

[BGD 6,437]

Have to agree with the others, best read on here in a long time

 

Worth the effort in the end I reckon, stunning finish to the project