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It was not until the A.G.M. that I realised we had a well, not only that, but it was located at the bottom of my plot.
A few days later I checked out the well and found the water level was 5’1” below ground level (B.G.L.) and the bottom of the well was 12’4’’ B.G.L.
I decided I would try to extract some water, my initial intention was to just get enough for my own use.
Although I am qualified, my only water related qualification is my 25 yards swimming and this qualification I gained around 50 years ago!
A couple of weeks later I had successfully extracted enough water to fill my cube, it was then that I expanded my ambitions and decided to make the well water available to others.
I then devised the arrangement that you will now be familiar with, the 2 water butts behind my shed with the 2 taps available for general use, I have included in this a float switch (made of a bleach bottle and an old light switch) that switches off the pumps when the water butts are full and reconnects the pumps when water is drawn from the taps.
It is a 24 volt dc system (so no danger of electrocution) powered by a solar panel with rechargeable batteries for when the sun does not shine. It uses 2 submersible pumps, one at the bottom of the well to pump the water to a small ground level tank and the other to
Pump the water from the tank to where it is needed.
The extraction rate is about 50 gallons/hour, so it takes around 5 hours to fill a cube from empty.
This all worked fine (there were lots of different problems I encountered, and it took me several weeks of trial and error to get it all working to my satisfaction).
The well seemed very able to meet my needs so I then started filling up cubes, I started with the communal cubes by the green shed then moved on to the personal cubes near my plot.
It was then decided the well should have a proper lockable cover, to make it safe for children and to stop people (probably from Melton as Oakham people are not like that!) from arriving in the dead of night with a sack full of Kittens.
We then had a dry spell and I was draining the well, I could then see that there were lots of foreign objects at the bottom of the well, I then set about removing these, I got out a metal window frame, lots of broken glass, bricks, a galvanised bucket and watering can, a concrete block (that took the combined strength of Alan and I to haul by rope to the surface) and the base of a table.
I also extracted a large quantity of silt that appears to be pure clay, you can see this pile at the well head. Extracting the silt is hard dirty work and although I estimate there is still a foot to 18 inches of silt remaining, I am not extracting any more for now.
Cleaning of the well increased the depth from 12’4” to 14”2’’ this increased the supply capacity, but it was still inadequate to meet our needs.
I had linked the water butts to my cubes to try and even out the supply and demand amounts, even so I could see day by day the water level in my cubes slowly dropping, the amount of water I could extract per day gradually reduced until I was only getting about 40 gallons a day, the demand from the water butt taps exceeded this.
Then the rains came! for the first few days there was no change in the well level but the demand from the water butt taps reduced to zero. Then overnight the well was full, the water level was only 4 feet B.G.L. (over a foot higher than when I started the project!)
Since then I have been pumping in earnest, from being only able to extract 40 gallons a day I was able to extract 400 gallons a day, and the water level in the well only dropped by one inch. On the best day I extracted 600 gallons, I have used this water to fill up all the cubes on site.
I was aware that the amount of water you are allowed to extract without getting permission and paying for a permit is limited, so I checked online, this amount is 4400 gallons/day. The most we could possibly extract pumping 24 hours a day would be 1200 gallons, so we are in the clear.
The water level in the well is now dropping a little day by day.
The water butt taps and the green shed cubes are fine for people with central plots, but not so useful to people at either end of the site, Simon and I have discussed this and we will be providing communal cubes at both ends of the site when they become available, we will also be installing one or hopefully more cubes at the well head to tide us through dry spells.
We have already reduced the amount of mains water we need to buy, and I hope we will not need to buy any more, my personal opinion is that rain or well water must be better for plants as it is not contaminated with chlorine etc.
Please do not be under any illusion, the well will not provide a constant supply of water, but I think it could supply enough water for our needs if we store it during “the rainy season”. Also, we need to carry on with our rain harvesting (it is disappointing to see sheds still not connected to butts or cubes). Also prioritising what we water and when we do it is important.
Another thing that would help would be if allotmenters (is that a word?) with their own cubes full of water, during dry spells used this rather than water from the communal taps.
Throughout the project I have kept costs to the minimum, the water butts and hose pipes were obtained from free cycle, the wood for the well cover and electricity stantions came from “skip diving” the electric cable was different oddments of cable I had accumulated over the years, the solar panel was magically produced from Simon’s shed and the roofing felt for the well cover was donated by Rick.
The total cost of expenses billed to the association was just under £23.00
My priority for allocating the water is and will remain.
Filling the cubes is easy light work but it is time consuming, to fill a cube from empty requires 2 visits to site exactly 5 hours apart, I am at present designing an arrangement that will be as simple as connecting the hose and throwing a switch, when this is operational allotment holders will be able to fill their own cubes.
At this point I will reduce my work and will only be filling the communal and Siobhan’s cubes.
Due to other commitments the bottling plant plans have been postponed until 2020 (If Del boy could do it!)
Phil Hitchcock
June 2019
Simon Barefoot has been the President of the Association for quite some years. His hands-on approach includes trimming the hedges, cutting the grass and encouraging the cultivation of flowers, vegetables and fruit on our special site. He runs the seed order scheme and is involved with the poultry ‘co-operative’. Promoting rainwater collection and low-tech crop management are important interests.