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Well in my garden

H

husnara.bibi.rumi

Brummie babby
Hi Everyone
I found a well in my garden after repairing a water pipe. I wonder if anyone knows how I can have the well dated and perhaps find out what it was used for?
I live in a Victorian terrace house in Lozells.
I'm going to go to the Birmingham Archives tomorrow to try and find old maps of the area.
I've checked the British Geological survey maps online and the well isn't listed on there.
Thanks for your help.
Husnara
 
husnara.bibi.rumi said:
Hi Everyone
I found a well in my garden after repairing a water pipe. I wonder if anyone knows how I can have the well dated and perhaps find out what it was used for?
I live in a Victorian terrace house in Lozells.
I'm going to go to the Birmingham Archives tomorrow to try and find old maps of the area.
I've checked the British Geological survey maps online and the well isn't listed on there.
Thanks for your help.
Husnara
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hi husnara and welcome...if you are happy to tell us the road or street where you live we may have access to older maps that we can look at for you...wells were quite common and it depends on what sort of well you have as to what it was used for.. i know for certain there was one near wills st lozells...it was under what is now georges park and is marked on a map i have...if you are happy to share any photographs you have that may also help..

lyn
 
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thanks for the photos...closing in on them it does look like it could have been a well...i take it its in your back garden...i know for sure that there was a well just inside the railings of georges park on the wills st side...by looking at old maps and overlays i can see it was very close to the 3 benches ..i will sort out the map and post it later for you..obviously its not your well but i thought the map marking it out maybe of interest to you...i lived in villa st from 1958 to 1972 so i know the area very well...

lyn
 
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here is the map from the 1950s..as i said this is not your well but as you can see the word well is marked out at the top of brougham st..it would have been in the back garden of number 2 brougham st also click on the link below to the overlay map..if you move the blue dot the old map will fade out to show you todays view as you can see the old well was situated just inside georges park roughly where the 3 benches are now..hope this is of interest



lyn

thumbnail - 2025-04-22T165437.603.jpg
 
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Astoness said:
here is the map from the 1950s..as i said this is not your well but as you can see the word well is marked out at the top of brougham st..it would have been in the back garden of number 2 brougham st also click on the link below to the overlay map..if you move the blue dot the old map will fade out to show you todays view as you can see the old well was situated just inside georges park roughly where the 3 benches are now..hope this is of interest



lyn

View attachment 201061
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That's a very cool map. Thank you. How can I see the next section over on the right? Do you have that, or only this section? I didn't know there were metal works and a warehouse on Brougham Street. The houses on Villa Street that were knocked down to make the park also look pretty big!
 
everything you see on that map in villa st and brougham street are long gone now and new houses were built..will see we can get a map showing wills st from villa st to church st...

lyn
 
Amazing Thank you. What year is this map from? or what years does it cover, do you know? I looked through all the maps in the National Library of Scotland and couldn't find the same one? The others don't show things like the Villa st works or the ice cream factory
 
It is 1955. If you looked only at the georeferenced maps, then it would not have come up. You have to go back to the main maps page on NLS, and then go to individual sheets, either by the marker pin, or outlines box. this gives you choice of individual sheets.
 
“The number of wells in old Birmingham must have been past counting; indeed wherever an inhabitant cared to go to the expense of sinking one it must be obvious that his supply of water would be sure. And all the wells appear to have supplied excellent soft water, with the single exception of one in St. Martin’s Lane, from which the water was hard.”

1901 Birmingham and Warks Archaeology Society.
 
The water supply in Smethwick including Bearwood which is close to the Birmingham border is hard and markedly different in taste to the Welsh water now supplied to Birmingham.
 
Working in the construction industry around Birmingham I came across quite a few of these old wells during the course of my work. One or two were already partly filled and were showing due to compaction and settlement. A couple of others were still open, quite deep and with water at the bottom. We found one once right outside someone’s back door once. The policy was to fill them in.

There were often two type of well, one the traditional well that was used to obtain groundwater. The others were sweet water storage. They were often brick, not all that deep and sometimes found under kitchen floors or in the back gardens. They would have the downpipe from the roof diverted into them.

I have seen a few where the front downpipe also ran all the way to the rear and into the sweet water tank. They did not waste a drop of rainwater. Some had a handpump over the sink too.

My grandmother used to save rainwater to wash her hair
 
Morturn said:
Working in the construction industry around Birmingham I came across quite a few of these old wells during the course of my work. One or two were already partly filled and were showing due to compaction and settlement. A couple of others were still open, quite deep and with water at the bottom. We found one once right outside someone’s back door once. The policy was to fill them in.

There were often two type of well, one the traditional well that was used to obtain groundwater. The others were sweet water storage. They were often brick, not all that deep and sometimes found under kitchen floors or in the back gardens. They would have the downpipe from the roof diverted into them.

I have seen a few where the front downpipe also ran all the way to the rear and into the sweet water tank. They did not waste a drop of rainwater. Some had a handpump over the sink too.

My grandmother used to save rainwater to wash her hair
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Yes there was a open well in my Nans garden end house Witton rd before Trinity rd just a board over it very dangerous for us kids thinking back
they found a few when demolishing Mansfield rd again a playground for us kids
the natural wells are called Artesian wells i recall from my Army days sourceing fresh water when iin the field
 
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