Storico archivio
Email, Donor to Madeleine Ding [Collections Officer], 20 December 2018 - 'Dear Madeleine, // Herewith the original attachments. They're not scale models, just my interpretation gained from looking at old pictures and, where they still exist, by visiting them to see what they "feel" like - call it three-dimensional art! They're all around three inches or less in any dimension, except Maharah's Well is a bit taller and wouldn't fit in the storage box. I actually made two Maharajahs Wells because local historian Angela Spencer Harper saw what I'd made so far and challenged me to tackle the biggie. So I made one for her at the same time. Labels in boxes show which well is which. // They are readibly detachable from the boxes, just unscrew shelves from the back, then unscrew models from the shalves. Reason for making them was I became intrigued by how many wells there were in this little area and did a bit of amateur research. Freestyle modelling has long been a hobby of mine. Oddments of car repair paste, wire, wood and anything else that caught my eye got made into something according to the interest of the moment, so it was a natural progression onto the wells. The predecessors to my wells were curious old three wheeled cars and differing styles of Royal Mail postbox. One-off's have included our the frontage of local hardware shop (still displayed on the counter) and a shipping line's crest for my brothers ex-matelot friend. // Hope that is an ample basis for consideration by t'committee. If you need any more background, feel free to ask. It just seemed a pity if in due course that these got chucked out with house clearance and finished up in a junk shop.', Email, donor to Madeleine Ding [Collections Officer], 1 December 2018 - 'Hi, // Before I go loopy with age, I'm having a clearout of treasures. Amongst them is a set of model local wells that I made out of bits & pieces a number of years ago, as per attached illustrations. Also attached is a narrative I wrote around the same time. You'll notice that the Maharah's Well is missing from its space inWells2.jpg. That's because I so liked the outcome that I cased it for display and that is depicted separately // I was wondering whether these would be of interest for the MERL collection. If so, I am loth to post them as they might not withstand the rigours of the postal system. It would be very handy if you had a staff member in my area, who could pop in and collect them en route to/from work., Miscellaneous note - 'The magnificent Maharajah's Well at Stoke Row owes its existence to the generosity of the Maharajah of Benares in 1864. One of his British advisers was Edward Reade, an Ipsden man who mentioned to the Maharajah the difficulties experienced by the inhabitants of Stoke Row in obtaining water, particularly during dry spells. // At Ipsden Church, the lesser Rajah financed the well mechanism but not a canopy. This was in use until 1948, when piped water reached the locality. These, however, are just two of various wells in the area bounded by the loopof the Thames and the Henley-Crowmarsh road. The reason for this lies in the absence of any streams. // If you didn't have your own well or tank, water was previously obtained either from ponds, buying it from the water cart, or after a long haul to the Thames and back. // Peppard Parish, for example had its own pump from the river at Mill Lane, Henley. // Provision of an assured clean public water supply closer to home did not rely solely on the beneficence of faraway potentates but were also financed by public subscription or by public-spirited local worthies. There was quite a variety of styles and of depths, ranging from a spring out of a hillside to a very deep hole, dug by hand. At 368 feet, Maharajah's Well is the same distance down as St. Paul's Cathedral is up! // In Horsepond Road Sonning Common, near "The Greyhound", is a wooden well 274 ft deep and sunk in 1888. A Mrs Stevens of Highmoor (aged 86 in 1994) worked at The Greyhound in her younger days and recalled having to get water from the well when the inn's own supply dried up. // [page break] // Gallowstree Common boasts a brick-built 190ft well with an ornate tiled canopy. // The 1864 Kidmore End Well (254ft deep) is located by the church and includes a notice specifying how to obtain the key. // There was once a 280ft well at Cane End, constructed in 1876 in similar style to those at Kidmore End and Horsepond Road. Kingswood Common well was sunk 245 feet in 1900 and and covered by a brick housing. It lasted only until 1929, the only trace being a concrete pad opposite Well Cottage. // Another previous well dropped down 150 feet on the green at Dunsden and there is a small replica, with the original winding wheel. The benefactors in 1878 were Miss Susanna Palmer of the biscuit family and Mrs Isabella Crawshay of Caversham Park. // At Binfield Heath stands Keeps Well, believed to date from 1724, though the domed brick housing is a later addition. Legend has it that a ghostly coach & horses gallops by in the dead of night. Galloping into it in 1980, an errant tractor converted it to a pile of rubble and it was then rebuilt. // At Highmoor, a little hexagonal flint and brick house provided by Miss Elwes of Highmoor Hall, encloses the well, every 284 feet of which was paid for in 1865 by the Rev H G Monro. // It had a drinking fountain in one side, with a pewter cup on a chain. This was supplied by a stone tank, which presumably had to be topped up periodically from the well. On the other side was a wall letter box. // The square green wooden structure in Whitchurch Hill is the well donated in 1853 by Samuel Weare, squire of Whitchurch // Opposite Rotherfield Greys church is a wellhouse, later converted to a bus shelter. // Some wells served private houses and a notable example can be seen at Greys Court, in is own building and operated by a donkey wheel. // The old Peppard Hospital, now redeveloped to housing, had a deep well, pumping up to a tank atop the water tower. // Previously part of Oxfordshire, Caversham hosts St Annes Well, a comparatively modern edifice commemorating an important religious site in the Middle Ages which was visited by pilgrims hoping to alleviate their various ills and disabilities. It was rediscovered during land clearance in 1906, with the commemorative structure being erected in 1908. // Many dwellings had their own well, though more likely to be "cisterns", i.e. fairly shallow tanks storing rainwater, though some larger houses had deep wells, similar to the public ones. // Old public water pumps are still to be seen at Crays Pond and this one at Nettlebed. // Finally, there is Sedgehill Spring in Spring Wood, Peppard. // [page break] // This is a spring rather than a well, i.e. the water flows out from the higher ground rather than having been dug down to the water table, and the brick facade was built around the outlet. // The earliest historical reference to it was in 1285 and the name derives from Segga's Well or Secga's Spring. The carving of an elephant isn't for the same obvious reason as for the Maharajahs Well in Stoke Row. The connection is possibly with the Knollys family, who were significant landowners in the area in past times, Sir Francis Knolly's effigy on his tomb in Rotherfield Greys Church being adorned with a heraldic elephant. // The facade was damaged by evacuees during WW2 and restored during the late 1970s by local volunteers. The elephant & inscription was missing and so was re-created in resin/stone mix by the then craft supervisor of Chiltern Edge School and the iron gate was salvaged by the late Dick Denning from allotments by the River Kennet near Kings Road bridge in Reading. A Peppard Parish Councillor, Mrs Manning who lived at Kibes by Bolt Cross, arranged for framed photos of the restoration work to be hung in Peppard Memorial Hall. // Sedgehill Spring bears a fitting quotation with which to conclude: // Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again, // but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst // (John IV 13:14)'
