Hand dug wells....

[Carykong]

If ya have an old hand dug well that still has year round water but is,of course, a safety hazard. Drop a 4" pipe to the bottom with holes drilled into the sides. Fill the old well with gravel,the gravel will allow the water to percolate into the pipe which is your new well liner for a 3" uptake. Great application for irrigation. Hate to see an old well go to waste.

 

[pwl]

I have an old hand dug well on a piece of property I bought. I always wondered how they were dug. I ran into an old timer that told me that a horse pulling a scoop would go bach and forth making a furrow in a u shape into the ground. When adequate water was struck, the stone would be layed up and backfilled placed back around the outside. That seemed reasonable to me.

 

[JB4310]

I have an old hand dug well on a piece of property I bought. I always wondered how they were dug. I ran into an old timer that told me that a horse pulling a scoop would go bach and forth making a furrow in a u shape into the ground. When adequate water was struck, the stone would be layed up and backfilled placed back around the outside. That seemed reasonable to me.

That would be a deep furrow, not that I have any better explanation but I doubt that would work except for a very shallow well.
Now you got me thinking how they were done, have to search it a little when I get a chance.

That's why I would never fill one in, they were a work of marvel that helped sustain life for generations, and could again in a survival situation. I would make some type of fool proof safety cover for sure.

JB.

 

[Treemonkey1000]

I don't mind filling them in if they are a hazard where kids might get into them. At my parent's property Grandpa had dug a few wells over the years. I remember one of them being uncovered more or less the building had collapsed in on it. We knew enough to stay away from it or risk getting our rear ends whacked with the belt. There are also many old coal mines in our area. Every so often the old wood shoring will collapse in on them. They have opened up under houses and decks around here occasionally..Some of them old boys back then were tough old birds.
If I get the chance I will try to snap a picture of the well at my Dad's

 

[nue2farm]

My Dad used a shovel to dig our well. Dug out a circle as large as he wanted the well to be. When the well got to deep to throw the dirt out (about 7 or 8 ft) he had a home made windlass set up over the hole with a rope and a bucket. Mom and I would wind the bucket up and dump it. Dad would get home from work and get down there and dig for a few hours every day until the well was finished. He used the rope to climb into and out of the hole, braceing his back against one side and walk and pull himself up. I think the well was about 4 feet diameter. Years later he had 3 or 4 8 feet long "tile" liners put into the well.

Sure was glad to get that well working. We no longer had to carry water from a spring about 100 yards back in the woods every day. Have fun and stay safe......

 

[jake98]

I wouldn't be able to bring myself to fill one in either. It would seem like a crime against antiquity. I like the idea of filling one with gravel and a pipe-casing though, if it was to be used for domestic water.
My property is at the top of a hill, in an area where all the wells are very slow producing. Everybody fights with them around here, hydro-fracking, screwing up their neighbors' wells, etc. I put a 500 gal tank in the basement and feed it slowly with a stock watering float valve, and use a second pump for the supply, problem solved.

For my future garden watering (if I live long enough) I'm thinking of digging one with my back-hoe. The JD410 goes 14' deep. The ground here is a layer of brown clay to about 5' and then hard grey clay. Everywhere I've dug, a sheet of water runs over the hard layer. It's like water everywhere, except where you need it.. at the top of the hill, so it must be artesian. The ditch around my shop runs till late summer every year.
So I'm thinking of putting a pre-cast tank or two down in a hole and burying it in gravel for a watering well. Totally illegal, I suppose, but what isn't these days. (this is where feel compelled to start talking politics..)

 

[Iplayfarmer]

I have three wells on my property. Two were put in by hand, but they're not a dug well. Our water table is so high that a perforated pipe driven into the ground will give water. There is a special drive point that goes on the end of the pipe.

I have one well in the basement of my house. I've capped it off since the previous owner was compelled to have a cased culinary well in order to sell the place. The other well is my irrigation well that I use every summer.

 

[jusalooking]

A good freind of mine had a young son fall into one and got killed, it had a concrete top of about 4 inchs on top of it, but it had a 2ft x 2ft manhole with a wood,top It was right in the boys grandma,s front yard and was mowed around, 1 day when the grandkids was all there they were playing and the boy who was around 5 or 6 walked onto the top and fell thu, maybe about 30 ft into 10ft of water, they said he had hit his head on the way down, I know it was in the mid 70,s and he still has problems
with it, I know my dad always filled them on our farms when i was young

 

[JB4310]

A good freind of mine had a young son fall into one and got killed, it had a concrete top of about 4 inchs on top of it, but it had a 2ft x 2ft manhole with a wood,top It was right in the boys grandma,s front yard and was mowed around, 1 day when the grandkids was all there they were playing and the boy who was around 5 or 6 walked onto the top and fell thu, maybe about 30 ft into 10ft of water, they said he had hit his head on the way down, I know it was in the mid 70,s and he still has problems
with it, I know my dad always filled them on our farms when i was young

Hole in the ground = Kid magnet!

If I had one I wouldn't be able to sleep well at night til it had a foolproof cover.

Also heard of horses falling in, that's gotta be pretty ugly.

JB.

 

[cr1ga]

One more picture. We had a visitor and everyone likes to draw a pail of water. One time is fun but I couldn't imagine doing it every day. If you look to the bottom right you will see where the pump took care of the everyday chore.