3.23,1: Wells
Since the Bronze Age wells have been dug in order to supply water (Burger 2001: 46). Modem wells can be excavated to a depth of 600m and produce an average yield of 40 litres per minute (McClean and Gribble 1992: 170). However, beyond a depth o f 30m modem wells are not dug but bored (Ministry o f Defence and Institute of Civil Engineers 1976: 333). The deepest reputed well of any United Kingdom castle is in the inner ward o f the 13'^-century Beeston castle which is 112m deep (Ruckley 1990: 14). Only three Suffolk castles, at Bungay, Framlingham and Orford, evidence wells. O f these Bungay at 60 to 70 feet (18 to 21m), is the deepest (Whitaker
1906: 34; Raby and Baillie Reynolds 1963: 19; Brown 1964: 18). Despite the evidence of cistems, the larger baronial or royal castles, such as Castle Acre and Norwich in Norfolk (Figures 7, 9), generally evidenced two or more wells (Coad and Streeton 1983: 151-2, 173).
Well sinking is both speculative and dangerous, especially in chalk. Burger passed out in a 12m deep well due to lack o f oxygen and carbon dioxide asphyxiation, known as ‘choke damp’. On the 6^ March 1875 the Suffolk Chronicle reported that a man had suffocated while working in a 75 feet (22.86m) deep well at Flixton and that two days before the fatality candles were
extinguished by a lack o f oxygen at a depth of 20 feet (6.09m) within the shaft (Whittaker 1906:
53; Vince 1978: 5; Woodland 1946: 10; Burger 2001: 46).
Wells create a cone o f depression of the piezometric surface, which may interfere with other wells by lowering the piezometric surface and thereby reducing flow. It can also lead to subsidence on the surface around the well-head, which may threaten the foundations of nearby buildings. The volume o f the aquifer also restricts the number o f wells that can be dug in a given area. Therefore, if a castle required several wells it had to be situated over a large aquifer, preferably in a river valley where the aquifer was shallow and yields less subject to seasonal variation (Ministry o f Defence and Institute of Civil Engineers 1976: 201; Detay 1997: 105).
Documentary evidence o f castle wells is sparse in the 11**’ and 12^ centuries. It is only after the mid-13'** century that records of castle constmction survive in large enough numbers for us to
compare the evidence. A well was a major expense in the construction cost of later castle s and that they had to be frequently cleaned-out or re-cut for them to remain functional, which were expensive operations. For example, Oxford castle required its well to be cleaned out in c.l 173- 4, which cost the crown £20 (Pipe Roll 20 Henry II: 77) and at Aberystwyth c .l286-9 the re
cutting of the well in the middle o f the castle cost a total of £27 16s Od including a wooden we 11-cover and a rope, which amounted to more than 10% of the total cost of the renovation of the castle (Brown et al. 1963: 306-7).
Wells had by the 13'*' century become an important enough internal feature to warrant a well- house or well-head. These buildings were designed to protect the well from pollution, and by the 15‘*'-century well-buildings could be lead roofed, highly decorated, painted and ornately carved, sometimes with heraldic devices (Brown et al 1963: 453 & 772). A decorated well
head, of an alleged 16*-century date, was evidenced at Framlingham before the 17“* century (Raby and Baillie Reynolds 1963: 19). Examples of earlier well-head buildings are known at Oxford castle c .l225, Ruddlan 1282 and Castell Y Bere 1294 (Brown et al 1963: 772; 324; 367- 8).
It is possible that timber well-heads and probable that lined wells existed in the 11* and 12^
centuries in Suffolk, but this thesis found no documentary evidence for them. A lined well is important where the drift or solid geology, for example boulder clay, loess, crag, glacial or river terrace sands and gravels or any other sandy soils, can pollute the water supply. To prevent this, wells are lined, a process referred to as steining, derived from OE stœning 1. a stoning, cast in stone, or 2. ornamenting with stones (Bosworth and Toller 1898: 908; Vince 1978: 5 & 49;
Detay 1997: 216).
According to Detay (1997: 74), a lined-well offers a number o f advantages:
a. Ensures maximum yield.
b. Resists corrosion of well.
c. Resists crushing pressure exerted by the aquifer formation.
d. Increases the well’s life-span.
e. Induces minimal loss of pressure.
The Romans used timber-lined wells in London. These could be either barrel-lined, comer-post construction or box-frame wells. The Romans favoured using square timber-framed wells in soft or sandy geologies. The most notable exception to lined-wells were those driven into chalk or stiff clay, as steining was not required Stone-lined wells might be constructed from stone or
brick. In either case clay was used to line the well floor (Vince 1978: 5; Wilmott 1982: 23-31;
Burger 1997: 49).
3,23,2: Mechanical hand pumps
Mechanical hand pumps have been associated with supplying water since Roman times; an excavated example comes from Silchester (Burger 2001: 56). Surviving post-medieval examples were wooden and frequently made from elm. The pump bore was augered, with its joints sealed with mutton fat. However, wooden pumps were difficult to maintain and repair and even mechanical hand pumps are limited in how high it is possible for them to raise water against gravity. This effectively limits the depth of water that can be raised by a pump to 25 feet (7.6m). A post-medieval hand pump is evidenced at Milden Hall. However, there is no evidence that pumps were used to supply Suffolk castles in the 11^ and 12* centuries, but their
occurrence in todays landscape indicates the peizometric surface is close to the surface (Vince 1978: 15).
3,23,3: Cisterns
Woodland (1946: 10) notes that water-butts or cistems were historically a frequent source of water-supply in high locations in the topography of Suffolk before the introduction of the modem water-mains.
Ruckley (1990: 20-22) identified cistems at the stone-built 11*- and 12*- century castles at Oakhampton, Dover and Conisborough; as well as distinguishing between primary cistems, for collecting large bodies o f water, and smaller secondary cistems, located at important strategic places around the castle, for specialised purposes like fire-fighting. Oakhampton castle in Devon exhibits hybrid forms o f supply where a dual-purpose cistem/land-spring collected water by means of both percolation through a water-bearing stratum and by capture of rainwater from the roofs of buildings (Higham et al. 1982: 31-35). In an especially dry county and on a notably dry coastline like that o f east Suffolk, the stone castle keep of Orford c.l 165 evidences a cistem in addition to its well (Brown 1964: 20 & plan).
Barker and Higham (1982: 36) have demonstrated that rain-water cistems were constmcted within the superstmcture of earth and timber castles at Hen Domen, where a mid-12*- century feature (XLIII), in the’Lower Bailey, is held to be a leather-lined cistem fed from the roofs of neighbouring intemal timber structures. A second cistem (Feature 15) has been identified in the northeast comer of the rampart and is interpreted as a strategically located fire-fighting water- supply; a highly functional feature in a combustible building (Barker and Higham 1982: 40). A
third wattle-lined cistem, (motte feature number 68) was tentatively identified at Hen Domen on the western edge of the motte and adjacent to the keep c. 1070 (Higham and Barker 2000: 63 &
67-9). In addition, other excavated examples of earth and timbers castles evidence cistems, for example at Goltho c. 1080, Baile Hill c. 1100, and South Mimms c.l 144 (Kent 1961: 318; 1963:
322; 1964: 255; 1968; Barker and Higham 1982: 40; Higham and Barker 2000: 63 & 67-9;
Beresford 1987: Fig. 109 101, 103-4, Addyman and Priestley 1977: 131).
3,23,4: Wet-moatSf p on ds an d natu ral lakes
A wet-moat, pond or natural lake can act as a reservoir for ‘still’ water (Brown et al 1963: 799;
Plowman 2005: 44). In areas covered by Lowestoft till the clay is largely impermeable;
consequently ponds are frequent in Suffolk and, unlike meres, are fed solely by rainfall.
Nicholas Sibbert has identified 22 635 ponds within the modem boundary of the county of Suffolk. This gives a mean county density of 5.9 ponds per km^ contrasting with a British lowland average o f 1 7km^ (Sibbert 1999: 6). The distribution of ponds across Suffolk is not even (Map 3.18) as it is dependent on how permeable the drift geology is. The average densities o f the Natural Areas o f Suffolk (Sibbert 1999: 15) are as
follows:-N atural area Average pond density
East Anglian Plain 7.7 per km^
Broadlands 4.6 per km^
Suffolk Coast and Heaths 3.3 per km^
Brecklands 1.0 per km^
East Anglian Chalk 0.4 per km^
London Clay District 2.89 per km^^
There are two civil-parishes with castles that Sibberf s data does not cover. South Thetford and Burgh, as they are now part of Norfolk. These have been calculated by dividing the frequency of ponds on the relevant Ordnance Survey map by the parish area (Minchin 1911: 683-695). The twenty-seven civil-parishes have means of 53.63 ponds each and density of 5.66 ponds per km^
Framlingham has the largest number of ponds, 174 being evidenced, but Otley has the highest density of ponds with 12.4 per km^. Freckenham has the lowest number and density o f ponds, but it is worth noting that its one pond is immediately west of the castle earthworks (Table 3.15).
’ This figure is calculated in Table 3.19 for Samford hundred as Sibbert (1999) does not include data for the London Clay District.
Wet-moats or island locations are evidenced or suggested at Bramsfield, Bungay, Clare, Desning, Eye, Finningham, Framlingham, Great Ashfield, Haughley, Ilketshall St John,
Lidgate, Lindsey, Milden, Nayland, Offton, Otley and South Cove castles (Appendices 1.1-2; 5;
7-12; 15-16; 18-.22; 24 & 26)
3,23,5: Springs^ meres and watercourses
A castle can be supplied with ‘live’ water by a natural spring (McClean and Gribble 1992: 164- 7; Brown et al. 1963: 367), which can be:
A valley spring.
A contact or stratum or land spring.
A fault spring.
A mere or spring-fed lake.
Water piped from an external live’ source is too late a technology for the data-set of Suffolk castles, as it is first evidenced at the palace of Westminster c.l 169-70 and only evidenced in castles from the 13^ century, for example Pembroke castle c.1200, Leeds castle in Kent c.1297- 8 and Restormel castle in Cornwall c .l337 (Brown et al. 1963: 698, 805 & 849; King 1978:
104).
Meres are spring-fed lakes and were, therefore, a more reliable source of water-supply and, which frequently fed Suffolk’s rivers (Sussams 1996: 3). Meres in East Anglia could be
substantial bodies o f water. Diss Mere in 1835 covered 5 acres (2.23 hectares) to a depth of 4.57 - 5.94m (Bennett 1884: 2). Three Domesday hundred-names contain the word OE mere
(Bosworth and Toller 1898: 679; Smith 1956: 38-9; Gelling and Cole 2000: 21-7; Watts 2004:
408-9): Bosmere, Hartismere (Skeats 1913: 82-3) and Bradmere. To these must be added the Domesday place-name examples of Minsmere (Ekwall 1947: 312), Rushmere (Lothing), Rushmere (Plomesgate), Rushmere St Andrew (Watts 2004: 514), Tusemera (Hartismere), Great and Little Livermere (Skeats 1913: 83), Semer (Skeats 1913: 83) and Sturmere (Watts 2004: 588) on the Essex side o f the river Stour (Rumble 1986: 1,2;8;15;23;26. 3,2;17. 4,40.
6,19;107;116;125;139. 7,32. 8,16. 14,22;68;87;108. 21,9,62;69. 31,34;40. 34,17. 67,14.; 1983:
38,6-7 ). Two Suffolk castles, at Framlingham and Haughley are situated adjacent to meres (Appendices 1.10 & 15).
The only mere evidenced on the river Stour is at Wormingford, which is 30 feet (9.144m) deep and was according to local folk-tradition, the home of a dragon (Waller 1957: 2). Meres could
be artificially enlarged; for example, at Framlingham castle were an existing body of water was enlarged by the construction of a dam c. 1180-90 (Plowman 2005: 43).
A site adjacent to a watercourse could supply ‘live’ water to a castle, as at Bungay, Burgh, Clare, Eye, Framlingham, Freckenham, Lindsey, Nayland and Otley castles, or even a tidal estuary as at South Cove (Appendices 1.2; 4-5; 8; 10-11; 19; 21; 24 & 26). Adjacent to a
watercourse, a well could be driven into the relatively shallow piezometric surface, for example, in all the cases o f Suffolk castles that evidence wells. Watercourses were also incorporated into castle defences at Bungay, Burgh, Clare, Eye, Framlingham, Freckenham, Lindsey, Nayland, Otley and South Cove (Appendices 1.2; 4-5; 8; 10-11; 19; 21; 24 & 26).