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Digbeth Mineral Water Works and Well

Pedrocut said:
Old news from 2008, but may be of interest. Birmingham rising water table…

www.business-live.co.uk

Birmingham on flood alert as water table rises

Birmingham’s water table is rising to dangerous levels and the city is at risk of being submerged under regular floods unless urgent action is taken, it has been claimed.
www.business-live.co.uk www.business-live.co.uk
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It fairly common knowledge that when Birmingham had a large Manufacturing and Brewing industry the amount of water abstraction taken by these industries by default kept the water table in check.
Ansell’s and HP sauce production in the B8 area used gallons of water via abstraction (aquifers and constructed bore holes) .
There are some research papers and reports that support one of the reasons Birmingham never had a rail tube system was the issue of the geology and water management issues pre, during, and post construction of such a system
I have experienced the varying levels of the water table in excavations in Birmingham City centre in particular one excavation ironically in the Well Street/ Great King Street area , where we had pumps running 24/7 to keep the excavation dry (ish) and viable .
 
Seanyb1986 said:
The area is being developed for 2 new skyscraper buildings, as seems all the rage in birmingham now, unfortunately i think all previous obstructions, whatever they may be, will be recorded and removed, to be replaced by stable crush infill, this could be as deep as 8 meters in places i believe, i dont know how we will deal with the spring/borehole but it cant stay where it is, there is probably a modern way to cap it off
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Just wondering what sort of obstructions could be 8mtrs deep ?
 
Seanyb1986 said:
In this picture, the wall running below the steps runs the length of the site, nearly in line with the divide of the opposite buildings, the bit of the wall you see here is topped with slate????
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And are these steps to a cellar or underground structure? It also occurred to me that the street level would once most probably have been below the existing street level. So I’m a bit confused about what I’m looking at ! Viv.
 
Vivienne14 said:
And are these steps to a cellar or underground structure? It also occurred to me that the street level would once most probably have been below the existing street level. So I’m a bit confused about what I’m looking at ! Viv.
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not being an expert viv my first thought was the steps lead up from a cellar maybe will know more once the report comes out which i would think wont be just yet...my thought was that the street level has not changed in over 100 years this is looking at the age of the building on the other side of well lane...the dig is opposite those buildings

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lyn
 
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managed to get down to the site this morning...most interesting indeed..except for the allison st side there is mesh around the fencing but as there was a few rips i could get my camera through...took these few photos and although much the same as seans thought i would post them anyway..photo 1 is one that sean took..i think he must have taken it from the other end of the site which i could not get to..his photo shows the steps looking towards well lane the other photos appear to be much wider steps looking towards allison st...must say i did not expect to see such a vast amount of water and it was quite deep it certainly could be the spring...just a few ducks needed to make a nice little pond :D

lyn

steps facing well lane.jpgwell lane pics 9.jpgwell lane pics 12.jpgwell lane pics 14.jpg
 
Looking at the photo in post 72, it would seem to me that you have the remains of the top of a roadway leading down . The Welcome Well Lane poster is on the wall in the position in red on the 1889 map and the Google map overview. On the map there is shown to be an entrance at just that point, so that would agree with it being so. This would suggest that the spring was somewhat below the level of the road .
There does seem a lot of water accumulated in there, from the spring. I remember reading many years ago that , since many of the industries in Birmingham that use water, especially the large breweries, closed down, the water table in Birmingham has risen considerably, causing sonme cellar to have a flooding problem

A1.jpgA.jpg
 
Do we know precisely where the Digbeth Spring structure illustrated in post #12 was located ? And are any the remains currently being uncovered part of that structure? Mike also posted this advert on the Goffe’s thread. The advert labels the image as “View of Digbeth Well” which looks to me like it’s sunken much below ground level. It was at the time drawing water from a depth of 400ft. Also wondered if any curved bricks have been uncovered ?

Reposting Mikes post #12 for ref below with the clearer image of the well. Viv.

A2D128D3-408F-4FAD-ADD1-4F401A3CDF05.jpeg

Viv.
 

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Vivienne14 said:
Do we know precisely where the Digbeth Spring structure illustrated in post #12 was located ? And are any the remains currently being uncovered part of that structure? Mike also posted this advert on the Goffe’s thread. The advert labels the image as “View of Digbeth Well” which looks to me like it’s sunken much below ground level. It was at the time drawing water from a depth of 400ft. Also wondered if any curved bricks have been uncovered ?

Reposting Mikes post #12 for ref below with the clearer image of the well. Viv.

View attachment 175542

Viv.
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viv there is a map on post 25 showing the locations of the spring and the well

lyn
 
Here again is the better photo
digbeth mineral springs.jpeg

The c1889 map seem in agreement as to the position of the spring, as shown in post 75. I estimate that on the Google view the spring (the round structure) is where the red dot is below

approx position of spring.jpg

The two low walls shown on the photo must correspond to two walls of the square structure shown on the map .
 
viv that is what myself and mike have been discussing..the steps at the top of the map seem to be going the wrong way to be the ones facing well lane but the ones showing at the bottom right of the map seem to be facing allison st so they could be the steps on post 70 photo 2...difficult to be certain as map writers sometimes made errors

lyn
 
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Gas Engineer Tank Over ? See Viv’s map in post 81.

Is the slaughter house, just S of the well, where the horn was found ?
 
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I notice there’s quite a bit of white painted brickwork on the modern photos. Does any of it tie in with the old advert for the well ? And some of the brickwork/stone rubble in post #83 looks to me like it has curved edges. Wall capping stones perhaps (as shown in the old advert) ? Viv.
 
thats great news sean if i zoom in on your photo i can see it clearly.....i knew you would find it it had to be there....do you know what will happen next?

lyn
 
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