Lunchtime Speaker – Keith Tatlock – Woodingdean Well

Our speaker this week was Keith Tatlock. In the absence of our scheduled speaker, Keith gave us a talk on
the Woodingdean Well, which is the deepest hand-dug well in the world. Woodingdean is a village to the
east of Brighton. In the 1850’s, the local authority decided to build a new workhouse in Woodingdean to
replace the old dilapidated one and also build a new industrial school for poor children. It was decided that
because the cost of mains water would be prohibitive, it would build its own well using a local labour force,
augmented by paupers, to build it. The labourers were to work 24 hours per day on a shift system 7 days
per week. Construction started in 1858 on a 6ft diameter shaft which was lined with bricks. By 1860, the
depth of the shaft had reached 438 ft and some side tunnels were dug, but no water had been found. It was
then decided to continue digging, but the diameter of the shaft was reduced to 4ft, which meant that only
two men could work in the shaft at one time. After another two years the depth of the shaft had reached
1285 ft, making it the deepest hand-dug well in the world. It was also 850 ft below sea level. On 16th March
1862, the ground started to bulge upwards. The two men working there quickly climbed up the shaft, taking
45 minutes, to escape the water, which had started to gush out. In one hour the water had reached 400 ft
and by the end of the month had risen to 945 ft. A steam driven pump was used to extract the water. But
the well was only used for 4 years, after which it was decided to connect the the workhouse up to mains
water and sewerage. The top of the well can be seen today in the grounds of the Nuffield Hospital. The
deepest mine in the UK is at Boulby in North Yorkshire. This is 4,600ft deep and mines polyhalite, a
naturally occuring inorganic fertiliser of which it is currently the only producer in the world. But a new
polyhalite mine is planned in the same area, which will be even deeper at 4,900ft (1.5km). The mine is home
to the Boulby Underground Laboratory. Because of its depth it has extremely low background radiation and is
used for research into space and into dark matter. It also researches extremophile organisms – that is
microbes that thrive under the most extreme conditions. Richard Sanderson congratulated Keith on his very
interesting talk.