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Water : Springs and wells of Birmingham

Vivienne14 said:
Various properties and land for sale near (or on?) Well Street in Digbeth with powerful springs of soft water beneath the site. The land had pumps and a large reservoir. Viv.

View attachment 165442
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never heard that name before. "HOGHEAD OF WATER"
MeasureEquivalent
1½ barrels (54 gallons)1 hogshead
2 barrels (72 gallons)1 puncheon
2 hogsheads (108 gallons)1 butt
3 puncheons (216 gallons)1 tun
 
Hogshead wooden barrels were in regular use when I worked at the Greyhound in Court Lane, along with normal barrels and kilderkins (1/2 barrel).

Lots of pubs called the three tuns, they must have drank a lot of beer.

I don’t know if this is coincidence, but a tun must of weighed around 1 ton
 
if like me you did not know
What is a hogshead barrel?


A hogshead is essentially a barrel made from the staves of a bourbon cask with new oak ends. A butt is the standard size cask used for maturing sherry. As the interaction between wood and spirit is integral to the maturation process, smaller casks tend to mature Scotch whisky quicker.

tun​

The tun is a cask that is double the size of a butt and is equal to eight barrels and has a capacity of 252 imperial gallons (303 US gal; 1,150 L). Invented in Brentford, a tun was used in local breweries to measure large amounts of alcohol
 
Our neighbour in Atlantic Road Kingstanding had a well in his back garden. I’ve always thought it was strange. It was deeply sunken, far below ground I remember being told. I remember seeing it from our back bedroom window. It had a square, brick wall surrounding it and a hinged cover. Was this a common thing on domestic premises ? This was on a 1930s developed road, nothing but farmland prior to that and I can’t imagine any reason the neighbour would need the well. Would it have been an old well (from a farm) or one perhaps created when the houses were being built as a source of water ? Viv.
 
Vivienne14 said:
Our neighbour in Atlantic Road Kingstanding had a well in his back garden. I’ve always thought it was strange. It was deeply sunken, far below ground I remember being told. I remember seeing it from our back bedroom window. It had a square, brick wall surrounding it and a hinged cover. Was this a common thing on domestic premises ? This was on a 1930s developed road, nothing but farmland prior to that and I can’t imagine any reason the neighbour would need the well. Would it have been an old well (from a farm) or one perhaps created when the houses were being built as a source of water ? Viv.
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I would have thought that by 1930’s mains water was well established in Birmingham. From a construction prospective, the mains service is the first thing to go into a building site, followed by the roadway formation layer. Its also unusual, but not unknown for builders to fill old wells as they are a risk. We certainly did so with the exception of one that we capped off very securely.

I have come across old Anderson Shelters that were buried quite deep. One I did go down was around four feet below surface and accessed via a manhole cover.

As a matter of interest, how far from the house was it?
 
Morturn said:
Just looking at old maps, there aren’t any significant features before the houses were built.
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i couldnt see anything either mort...just farmland having said that i think a well could have popped up anywhere...do not think they had to have properties/farms near them

lyn
 
we had one in the garden. in oswetry. from above it looked like a well cover,but when i got the lid up it was a room with benches down there
 
Thanks all. The neighbour was a builder so maybe he sunk it for his own use. But I wondered how he’d have known there was a source there. Viv.
 
Vivienne14 said:
Our neighbour in Atlantic Road Kingstanding had a well in his back garden. I’ve always thought it was strange. It was deeply sunken, far below ground I remember being told. I remember seeing it from our back bedroom window. It had a square, brick wall surrounding it and a hinged cover. Was this a common thing on domestic premises ? This was on a 1930s developed road, nothing but farmland prior to that and I can’t imagine any reason the neighbour would need the well. Would it have been an old well (from a farm) or one perhaps created when the houses were being built as a source of water ? Viv.
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When you say 'farmland', Vivienne, do you know what the land was used for - i.e., arable or stock-rearing? If the latter, I can well believe that the farmer would want his own source of clean water. Some years back, I was working with some Suffolk Punch draft horses. In the winter, when they were eating a lot of hay, each one normally drank 18 gallons a day. I've just checked, and a dairy cow in full milk production drinks about the same. It strikes me that, when this land was farmland, using it to keep dairy cattle would have been a pretty sound proposition, with a large market for fresh milk right on the doorstep. If the farmer only had 50 head of cattle (and that's a small herd!), and a couple of horses, add in the water required for running the house and washing out the dairy equipment, and he'd need at least 1,000 gallons a day.
I think that would make it very worthwhile having his own supply of water, especially as development only started in that area in 1928, so before then, there may have been no mains water available.
Where I live now, in the Peak District, it's very common for farmers to still source all their water from artesian wells and springs. In fact, the name of the farm I live on is Cold Springs Farm, and the nearest one to my flat is only 50 yards away!
With best regards,
Jack
 
Before housing was built in the area this was the position:
1928, Birmingham Council applied under a Housing Compulsory Order to acquire 450 acres of farm-land. This land comprised of land belonging to Warren Farm, Half-Way Farm (Hawthorn Road), Pool Farm (close to the top of Cranbourne Road) and the Kettlehouse Farm’. At the time of acquisition, the farms were situated within the Perry Barr District Council. Source http://new-heights.org.uk/the-history-of-kingstanding-part-3/

This is a view of nearby Warren Farm land in cultivation.
40E9E781-8539-4C43-8D3A-C01EB8F81181.jpeg

As far as I can tell it was probably mixed farming, but I think there was mostly crop cultivation, including potatoes. So can’t really say precisely what the land was used for. Having said that, historically there is evidence of much draining and pumping of water across the area. Viv.
 
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