With the recent record temperatures and lack of rain, it is just as well we are no longer dependant on the village pump for water supply. Both our villages have a village pump that is Grade 2 listed and noted as mid 19th century age.
There is also a record of the pump borehole depth in the British Geological Survey Memoir ‘The Water Supply of Essex from Underground Sources’ by Whitaker and Thresh, published in 1916 (available in Google books). Both records were provided by Mr George Ingold of Bishops Stortford who dug many local bores. He was a pump maker and well sinker who inherited his father’s business in 1864 and died in 1899. Hatfield Broad Oak village well at Cage End was bored in 1892 to a depth of 27 feet (8.1m) in Boulder Clay deposits. There are also records for two wells on the Green and several outlying farms. In 1901 it notes there was a spring feeding three public standpipes in addition to the wells. In Hatfield Heath the village well was bored in 1893 to a depth of 23 feet (6.9m) in Boulder Clay deposits. There are also records for a private 20’ deep well (6m) for Mr Bowyer and at The Brewery a well about 100’ deep (30m). For both villages there would be many more private wells, as borne out by the number of wells/pumps recorded by Frank Walsh in his 2013 book ‘The Wells and Pumps of Hatfield Heath’, which lists 42 wells and 17 pumps (copies available at £5 from David Parish on 07483 276543). This is a very favourable survival rate as Bishops Stortford Museum has an original pump on display but there is only one pump still in its original location. By 1913 there was a piped water supply to the parish from the mains of the Herts and Essex Co. There are similar records of wells for the surrounding parishes of Great Hallingbury, Little Hallingbury and Matching. Adjacent to the Hatfield Heath village pump is the village post box and that was yarn bombed at the beginning of July. Featuring Holy Trinity Church on the top and village activities, it was fun to spot our society represented with our HRLHS initials adjacent to URC where we hold our meetings. After our summer break, we resume our meetings on Tuesday 20th September 2022 at 7.30pm in the Hatfield Heath URC Church Hall. Our speaker is Patrick Roberts returns to talk about aspects of Oliver Rackham’s work (1939-2015). He was a Cambridge academic who revolutionised the study of ecology, management and development of the British countryside, especially trees, woodlands and wood pasture. A prolific author, one of his books is ‘The Last Forest – The Story of Hatfield Forest’. Quentin Spear
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