Page 26 • The HERALD • 14th November 2024 v SAY YOU SAW IT IN THE HERALD v Kitchen & Bathroom Showroom with free design service Tel: 023 8084 3787 Email: showroom@pcbuildingsupplies.co.uk Web: www.pcbuildingsupplies.co.uk • Re-Skimming • Rendering • Coving • Dry Lining • Tacking • Artex Covered • Floor Screeding www.tbrownplastering.co.uk Call: 07919 183989 Friendly • Reliable • Professional • Free Estimates • Digital Aerial & Satellite Installations • Repairs & Servicing • TV Distribution Points • TV Wall Mounting & Installations • Freesat HD/Freeview HD • Sky, Sky+, Sky HD • SMATV & IRS Systems • DAB/FM Aerial Installations CAI Company of the Year 2014 Humphries Digital Aerials Keith Humphries & Son All Areas Covered Tel: 023 8066 7362 Email: humphriesaerials@btconnect.com • Website: www.humphriesdigitalaerials.co.uk A Family Firm Est 1971 THE FAWLEY WELLS by Robin Somes, Fawley and Blackfield Memories In looking at the history of Fawley windmill, we brie y mentioned the record of two wells, one by Windmill House and an older one by the windmill itself. While the concept of piped water supply existed in Roman times, and became more common in towns and cities a er the Industrial Revolution, many rural areas in Britain still relied upon wells, boreholes and springs as recently as the 1940s – when 30% of rural households still had no piped water. ere has been a profound religious and mystical reverence for wells and springs throughout history, both in Pagan and Christian times. O en chalybeate springs – containing iron compounds producing a rich red-orange colouration around the spring – were especially prized for their supposed health-giving properties. On a more practical level, since Victorian times geologists, engineers and many others have studied the subject of public water supplies, in great detail. Unlike some areas, Hampshire is blessed with plentiful rainfall, and many potential water sources, including rivers, springs, and a wide range of underground water-bearing formations – chalk, sandstone, sands and gravels, and the like. It’s no surprise, therefore, to nd a 1910 book titled “The Water Supply of Hampshire”, by William Whitaker, providing as much information on the subject as one might desire, and a record of all the county’s major wells and boreholes. To help us locate them, they are also marked on the Ordnance Survey maps of the time. e borehole at Windmill House in Hythe was drilled in 1892 by Messrs A. Williams & Co, and reached a depth of some 500 feet; the level of water varied between 150 and 170 feet down. e location was close to what is now the entrance to Badgers Walk, o Whitewater Rise. At the windmill – o what’s now Foxtail Drive - the well was around 45 feet deep, with water present at 39 feet down. Sadly, the water in both wells was “… slightly brackish, and with a disagreeable smell and taste”. A good half dozen other boreholes are recorded across the Waterside and adjacent areas, including an experimental series on the mud in front of Winterton Hall, o Shore Road at Hythe, which revealed a lot of mud, gravel, clay and peat, but no potable water. Finally, at Stone Point at Lepe a borehole is recorded, to a depth of nearly 138 feet, through shingle, clay and sand – again, there is no record of water being discovered. Although of course many rural properties had their own wells, a few of which still survive, most, if not all, of these more signi cant boreholes and wells are now gone, and with them the memory of a time when our water supply couldn’t be taken for granted. Water tower and wind-driven well pump at the rear of Windmill House. Photo by E. W. Mudge.
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