Coventry's wells

Apols Cliff, didn’t realise it was yours. Great shot though. Helen have a look at the library pics - there’s a few ‘wells’

Not a problem, Neil - I was merely showing that I could vouch for the date

Good pic MR.

Well, the great city of Coventry consists of ten small hills, or portions of hills, the River Sherbourne, Radford Brook, Spon End Brook, scores of springs and ancient wells - for man and horse to live in harmony with enough water for both. None of these hills rise to great elevation, Barrs Hill only 75 feet above the Burges, Hearsall Common only 67 feet above Spon End. But the wells were enough water to sustain through 2-3 sieges in the Civil War. I became aware of these wells in 1934/5 when the country suffered severe drought, when the well that fed me ran low and discoloured. It was around that time I was told the deepest well in Coventry was in Broadgate, near the bottom of St Michael's Churchyard and in front of the once Mayor's Parlour. In the late 1940's, amongst the debris of this once fine city, I searched the ruins for any signs of this deep well - without any luck.

Rob, If these 'well' pictures originated from you may I ask if you have any more information - dates, where obtained - the wells in and around Broadgate seem to suggest five to six feet in diameter and hundred feet deep, most at one time with troughs. They of course were Coventry's first thoughts of becoming a habitable place to exist.

Hi Kaga, I assume you're referring to when Neil said "Rob has several images in the Library Pics of this well"? All he means is that I'm currently hosting the old Coventry Library image collection here on our forum (the blue button on the upper left of each page). I have no information about those images other than what was supplied with each one - and as we've occasionally found, some of their descriptions are incorrect! Eventually The Herbert will be launching a new website including a new, expanded image collection. When that happens, they might ask me to take down this collection and refer people to their new one, but that could be some time off yet.

Thanks Rob, you assumed right, don't think I'll stick around for the Herbert.

Perhaps someone (Helen ?) could look at this when it is possible to visit the Herbert.

I've dug out a copy of the 1974 excavation and will try to line stuff up with the map. There are at least 3 wells but they've been assigned to the post 1750s. 'Our' well was brick lined, This doesn't preclude it being older but it does look more like a 'modern' well. I shall attempt to work out where it was. Thanks Anne. Some of the 1974 excavations were to try and locate and properly date the stuff Shelton found.

I noticed this particular photo of Broadgate posted on one of the Coventry related Facebook groups and the person who posted the photo on there dated it as being taken in August 1975. It was actually in the following month towards the end of September (26th I think it was?) that the road in front of where the temporary shops once stood, was closed off to traffic for good and Broadgate was sadly an island no more!!!! (a similar thing happened a number of years back now in London's Trafalgar Square, as one side of that was closed off to all traffic and became pedestrianized!). Post copied from topic Broadgate on 10th Jul 2020 4:23 pm

A picture from the Telegraph confirming that, CKV. An earlier article on 12th June said that the scheme had been given the go ahead. The article also says that the area of the archaelogical dig is also to be lanscaped with some features retained for historical interest. This may include a 14th century well and an 18th century well on the site. Edited by member, 10th Jul 2020 2:38 pm

Benjamin Poole in his Coventry and its History and Antiquities says In 1703 a pump was put down in Cross Cheaping nearly opposite the building then known as "The Mayor's Parlour". The stone used in lining the well was brought from a tower without Cook Street Gate.

Annewiggy Yes, dead right again, that fits with everything I've read.

Here it is. The passage leads to the Women's Market - the one with the watch tower. I hope that the drain doesn't feed back into the well.

The one they kept was the brick lined well at the north end of the dig but there was another brick lined well and a SST lined well (sand stone?) further south that were not kept. The SST well sat over the castle ditch.