Wells and Springs of Gloucestershire 1930
Reproduced with acknowledgement by kind consent of H.M. Stationery Office
The village of Chedworth is on the side of a valley traversed by a stream which rises in springs near the church and joins the Coln at Fosse Bridge. In this valley, in the neighbourhood of the village, the Fullers Earth crops out in the sides all around and throws out springs, while the bottom of the valley is hollowed out of the Inferior Oolite. It is supplied by wells and by springs, all of which latter are thrown out by the Fullers Earth. Some of the wells on the higher ground are up to 60 ft. in depth (through the Great Oolite). Near the church some good springs issue. Close to the church is Holy Well; in a farm enclosure to the south two good springs, which formerly formed a fine cascade in the “Poor Land”. Subsequently water from these springs was taken for the supply of the Manor Farm buildings. A copious overflow is discharged through a pipe into a dip opposite the Seven Tuns Inn. This is drawn on by those living in the vicinity, but as the water runs along an open course by the road-side above the derelict water-wheel house it becomes turbid with storm water from off the road and when such is the case water has to be fetched from Holy Well.
From the dip opposite the Seven Tuns Inn some of the water runs through a grating, underground for a space, and reappears down Queen’s Street, along the side of which it flows. In a recess in the well in Queen’s Street is a stone trough fed, per pipe, from another spring. This supply is used by those living in the vicinity.
At Well Hill, near the station, is a spring, the bulk of the water from which is used for the supply of the Police Station and a private house. Water from a small spring is pumped by ram to supply Hart’s Hill Cottages.
Chedworth Tunnel cuts through the bottom-beds of the Great Oolite and Fullers Earth. The water in the bottom beds of the Great Oolite was therefore encountered. This water, a strong ‘spring’, is delivered by a ram to the limestone works near Foss Cross station. Surplus water runs into a sump below the 6-ft. way (in the tunnel) from which, it is understood, it escapes through a fissure in the subjacent Inferior Oolite.
At seven-eighths of a mile N.W. by N. from Chedworth Church a good spring is thrown out by the Fullers Earth on the edge of ‘The Downs’. It has been collected, and discharges through a 1 1/2-inch pipe into a trough. On January 11th, 1928 this pipe was ‘running full’. Water from this spring is pumped into a tank on ‘The Downs’ from which Newport farm, certain grounds and The Down Barn are supplied
A draw-well in Great Oolite at Pinkwell is 47ft. deep, and on 9th Sept 1922, had water standing in it at 19ft. from the surface. The water in the wells here becomes very ‘brown’ in wet weather and has disappeared several times in dry periods, so water is fetched from troughs in the fields which are supplied from Rendcomb
