I have just uncovered a 30 foot well in our garden which made me wonder how these were originally dug / built?

Answer 1

Dug wells
Until recent centuries, all artificial wells were pumpless dug wells of varying degrees of formality. Their indispensibility has produced numerous literary references, literal and figurative, to them, including the Christian Bible story of Jesus meeting a woman at Jacob's well (John 4:6) and the "Ding Dong Bell" nursery rhyme about a cat in a well.

In India, stepwells were created at times, sometimes used both for water and for cooling.

Such primitive dug wells were excavations with diameters large enough to accommodate muscle-powered digging to below the water table. Relatively formal versions tended to be lined with laid stones or brick; extending this lining into a wall around the well presumably served to reduce both contamination and injuries by falling into the well. The iconic American farm well features a peaked roof above the wall, reducing airborne contamination, and a cranked windlass, mounted between the two roof-supporting members, for raising and lowering a bucket to obtain water.

More modern dug wells may be hand-pumped, especially in undeveloped and third-world countries.

Note that the term "shallow well" is not a synonym for dug well, and may actually be quite deep - see Aquifer type, below.


Well water is drawn via mechanical pump (such as an electric submersible pump) from a source below the surface of the earth. Wells can vary greatly in depth, water volume and water quality. Well water typically contains more minerals in solution than surface water and may require treatment to "soften" the water.

A well is a hole in the earth from which fluid is withdrawn. Although water wells are the most common type, oil, gas, and mining wells also exist. A well is made by reaching the water table. Wells can be made in a variety of ways: digging, driving, boring, or drilling.

Wells draw water up from the ground, called ground water. Ground water is stored naturally below the earth's surface. Most ground water originates as rain or snow that seeps into the ground and collects. Ground water provides about 20 percent of the fresh water used in the United States. Most rural areas, and some cities depend on ground water as their source for water.


Water being lifted from a traditional well; Location:Taliparamba, Kannur, Kerala, IndiaDriven wells consist of a series of pipes with a point at the end. The point is driven into the ground, thus the name driven, to a depth of up to 50 feet. Bored and drilled wells can be up to 100 feet and 1000 feet deep, respectively. These wells require special digging and drilling equipment.

Most rainwater is absorbed by the ground and fills the tiny spaces between soil particles. However, excess water runs over the top of the soil until it reaches a river, stream, or reservoir. Runoff water brings pollutants it encounters along the way to the reservoir.

As water seeps into the ground, it settles in the pores and cracks of underground rocks and into the spaces between grains of sand and pieces of gravel. In time, the water trickles down into a layer of rock or other material that is water tight. This water tight zone collects the ground water, creating a saturated zone known as an aquifer. Aquifers in the United States are usually made from gravel, sandstone, limestone, or basalt (volcanic rock).

The water in the earth that these wells obtain is at a place in the ground known as the water table. The water table is the level of the ground water below the earth's surface. This table is measured by the depth of the upper limit of the Aquifer. The water table can be lowered by lack of precipitation or overdraft.

Overdraft occurs when water is removed from the aquifer at a faster rate than can be naturally replaced by rain or snow. The lowering of the water table causes problems such as land subsidence, surface cracking, sinkholes on the surface, damage to the aquifer's water producing character due to compaction, and in coastal areas, salt water intrusion. Salt water intrusion occurs when the water table is low and the ground water lacks sufficient water pressure to prevent the ocean from backing up into the ground water.

In a damp area, the water table can be reached simply by digging. In this case the well walls are usually lined with brick, stone, or concrete in order to keep the sides from caving in on the well. A dug well can be up to 50 feet deep, and has the greatest diameter of any of the well types. Well water that contains a high number of dissolved minerals is called a mineral well. Underground water is considered fairly clean, except in Karst areas, because soils create a filter that remove large toxins.

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Contamination
Shallow pumping wells can often supply drinking water at a very low cost, but because impurities from the surface easily reach shallow sources, a greater risk of contamination occurs for these wells when they are compared to deeper wells. In shallow and deep wells, the water requires pumping to the surface; in artesian wells, conversely, water usually rises to a greater level than the land surface when extracted from a deep source.

Well water for personal use is often filtered with reverse osmosis water processors; this process can remove very small particles. A simple, effective way of killing microorganisms is to boil the water (although, unless in contact with surface water or near areas where treated wastewater is being recharged, groundwater tends to be free of microorganisms).

Contamination related to human activity is a common problem with groundwater. For example, "BTEX" (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene), which comes from gasoline refining, and MTBE, which is a fuel additive, are common contaminants in urbanized areas, often as the result of leaking underground storage tanks. Many industrial solvents also are common groundwater contaminants, often as the result of dumping. Cleanup of contaminated groundwater tends to be very costly. Effective remediation of water supply is generally very difficult.

Answer 2

I can't answer in general but I can tell you how our well in Maine was dug. They dug a conical hole 23 feet deep, at which point they evidently hit a reliable supply of water. They rocked up this hole, about 4' in diameter, and backfilled around it with a mix of rocks and dirt. The end result was a 23' deep tube surrounded by a lot of small rocks that helped divert groundwater into the well. The top foot or so was solid soil, but dig down a bit and you'll find the rocks.

Answer 3

A "DUG WELL" is exactly that. It is just a 3-4 foot diameter hole dug in the ground.Clear stone is then dumped in the bottom, then well tile is stacked one on top of the other until it comes a couple of feet above ground. Then plumbed with all the necessary pumps and hardware.

Answer 4

by hand. They were dug wider to start with, so you could get down deep, and then back filled as you moved back up the hole, shoring up the sides.

Deeper wells they would build a cylinder of bricks in a small hole and then undercut it to make it gradually lower.

This method is still used today. In our village they are doing this right now to dig 20foot deep sewer manhole. The difference today is that they use concrete rings instead of bricks and haven't a clue what they are doing.

Ther are plenty of old boys in villages who used to dig them, go find one and ask, they can explain all sorts of farming jobs like this. Take a packed lunch though, you could be there a while !

Answer 5

They dig a hole to a depth of apox. 3 feet and then lay the bricks dry ( No mortar ) then they used to dig out the soil underneath the bricks, the brickwork would then gently lower itself, as they dug down they would top up the brickwork thus making it safe to work. If you were to dig a hole 30 feet dip there is a great chance of collapse.

Answer 6

I lived on a farm with a well 50 feet deep. I met the man that dug it. That's right they were dug by hand. They were tough in the old days.

Answer 7

Firstly a dowser finds out where the water is closest to the surface then a well digger comes and digs it by hand/bucket bloody hard work then the walls are bricked up then you use it much easier to turn on a tap you lot don,t know you are born !

Answer 8

By hand, spade and 'long stick' normally. Amazing what you can do when you are thirsty isn't it.

Not that a well does you any good in UK unless you do not already have a mains water supply. The Water Authority 'claim ALL water at source' and charge most for sewerage anyway, so you'll not avoid your rates.

Answer 9

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Answer 10

(Bricklayer of 35 years) knows what he is talking about they build at the top and dig out to lower the bricks to the bottom of the well, I found a well over 100 feet deep! you work that one out.

Answer 11

Somebody went down the hole as they dug it. Ever hear the expression "cold as a well digger's butt"?