Water Supply: the Present Practice of Sinking and Boring Wells / With Geological Considerations and Examples of Wells Executed

by Ernest Spon

Michelmersh, Hants.—[Fig. 250] shows a section of a well in this village, comprised within the writer’s practice. The shaft is 4 ft. 6 in. in diameter and 400 feet deep, steined both above and below the chalk with 9-inch work, the upper course having rings of cement at every 12 inches.

The strata pierced were;—

	Feet.	In.
Surface Soil	4	0
Dark Clay	27	0
Chalk	250	0
Band of Calcareous Sand	2	6
Upper Greensand	17	0
Total	300	6

The water rises some 19 feet in the shaft, and is abundant, although up to the present its quantity has not been tested.

Mile End, Middlesex.—Well at Charrington, Head, and Co.’s brewery. [Figs. 251 to 253]. The surface is 33¹⁄₂ feet above Trinity high-water mark.

In the upper part there are three iron cylinders built upon 9-inch brickwork, which is carried down into the mottled clay. A 9-inch iron cylinder, partially supported by rods from the surface, rises some 28 feet into the brick shaft into which it is built by means of rings. Another iron cylinder is carried down into the chalk, the space between the cylinders being filled in with concrete.

The strata passed were;—

	Feet.	In.
Made Earth	7	0
Valley Drift, 6 feet;—
Sand	3	0
Gravel	3	0
London Clay, 86 feet;—
Blue Clay	7	0
Hard Brown Clay, with claystones	68	0
Brown Sandy Clay	2	0
Hard Brown Sandy Clay, rotten at bottom	9	0
Woolwich and Reading Beds	63	0
Thanet Sand, 40 feet;—
Green Sand	2	0
Brownish-green Quicksand and Pebbles	2	0
Brown Sand	2	0
Grey and Brownish-green Sand	2	0
Green Sand and Pebbles	2	0
Brown Sand	2	0
Green Sand and Pebbles	15	0
Grey Sand and small Pebbles	2	0
Dark Grey and Green Sand	10	6
Green Sand and Green-coated Flints	0	6
To Chalk	202	0
Chalk Flints	0	6
Hard Chalk and Water	2	0
Total	204	6

The water-level is some 103 feet from surface, and the yield 60,000 to 70,000 gallons a day.