The Bergholt Bore Hole
Back in the 1930s, before the days where rural villages could be pipe-fed wate from reservoirs, boreholes would have been essential for domestic and agricultural use. The East Bergholt Notcutts borehole provides evidence of these. It also adds a little history on how the traveller population would have resided in the village – as reported here by Joan Millar who now owns the field on which the now-redundant borehole now sits.
- 64
- Bergholt Bore Hole, at the back of Notcutts, off White Horse Lane
-
Article by Joan Miller with thanks to Kay Peck, Jonathan Stow, Mark Barnes, Jane Beaumont, Jane Ainger for their memories of Diddy.
- 51.969056, 1.029137
Details
There is a 300-foot-deep borehole at the back of my garden and it has a bit of a history.It was dug in 1936, possibly on the site of an older borehole and above it stood a pylon construction some 60 feet high with a great water tank on the top. This provided the main village water supply until it was finally decommissioned in 1956.
Diddy, a well-known local character, used to live beside the tower in his gypsy caravan. This is an old photo of Diddy & his caravan and it’s also immortalised on John French’s cartoon map of East Bergholt. Diddy lived there for a few years and older residents remember him moving up the road to Burnt Oak Cottage later in his life.
By the end of the 1950s the water tower had gone, replaced by mains water to the village, and the tower was replaced by a manhole cover and a wooden hut which housed the pump. By 1960 the East Bergholt Estate Co” (aka Eley Estate company) owned “The Field” and in the summer the water from the borehole was used to pump water to the apple trees which covered the fields across their estate (the field behind Notcutts/playingfields; the fields on left at north end Gandish Rd; the fields either side all up Straight Road). The Land Rover used to drive up the track to the right of my house (that track has a brick laid surface about 8 inches below the surface) and turn the water on 2 or 3 times a week during the 1980s. Then by the end of the 1980s all the apple trees were felled and in 1998, East Bergholt Estates Co was able to get a new water source from Tendering Hundred Water Services, from the north of the village up Puttocks Lane/Cuttlers Lane. At this point pumping from the borehole was no longer necessary.
Once the water source was replaced the well was capped, the hut taken down and all water extraction rights were removed.
In about 1997/98 the East Bergholt Estate Co sold The Field in parcels to the houses that backed onto it. I bought the track beside my house and the piece behind it. And then I also bought the bit behind my immediate neighbours as they didn’t want it and I didn’t want the sale to fall through. So the original “The Field” was about 30 foot wider than the current bit behind my house and about twice as deep. The concrete slab covering the old well is right at the back of my garden just behind the big willow tree. I was specifically not able to buy the water extraction rights when I bought the land as Anglia Water wanted to preserve the water and the well is well and truly capped.
The area is a clay basin and I am told by an old village resident that she and the other kids used to play in the big pond which she said was pretty near to my house. My house has extra deep foundations to deal with the problem, but the patio still gets a pond on it after very wet rain.
You can still find the bore hole cap and the 4 concrete slabs which held the feet of the water tower but they are hidden under the wildlife now.
- 64
- Bergholt Bore Hole, at the back of Notcutts, off White Horse Lane
-
Article by Joan Miller with thanks to Kay Peck, Jonathan Stow, Mark Barnes, Jane Beaumont, Jane Ainger for their memories of Diddy.
- 51.969056, 1.029137
Credits and References
Article by Joan Miller with thanks to Kay Peck, Jonathan Stow, Mark Barnes, Jane Beaumont, Jane Ainger for their memories of Diddy.
Other Images
