I saw this on free.uk.diy.home and have x-posted it to uk.d-i-y


"Muddymike" wrote in message
om...
I have now opened up the well in the back yard and ordered a pump. The
trouble was the well had a deck 8m down supporting an old pump with no way
a new pump could be lowered into the water from above. It seems it was
complete luck that my original weight on a string found its way through a
small crack to the water when I dangled it down through the little hole I
first drilled.

So the old pump had to come out. Luckily the pumping mechanism was still
partially intact with a steel rod reaching almost to the surface, as in.
http://share.ovi.com/media/Muddymike...uddymike.10601

A Rope was attached to this and to the Land Rover
http://share.ovi.com/media/Muddymike...e.10600?sort=0
So by pulling on the rope, then clamping the rod off to re position the
rope a few times the old pump came to the surface. You can see in this
picture the rod rising up.
Now at one point with the pump almost out of the well disaster nearly
struck as the pull rope broke when the pump got caught up on an
obstruction. Luckily I had thought of this and had a second rope secured
already as back up. The upside was that the old pump crashing 30 feet
smashed a big hole in the deck so now its very easy to get the new pump
in.

The pump was finally manhandled out, but boy is this thing and the 18 feet
of 2 inch steel pipe below it along with all the crap attached to it
heavy. My son and I struggled with that stage.
Here it is for all to see.
http://share.ovi.com/media/Muddymike...e.10602?sort=0

and

http://share.ovi.com/media/Muddymike...e.10603?sort=0

I am now wondering what age this contraption can be. I am assured that
when our house was built mains water was available so no need for a well.
It must therefore have been installed for the old hall in the grounds of
which our house was built. Anyone have any idea how old the pump might be
from the picture? Interestingly it still works, and the bronze (or
whatever its made from) bolts undo easily as does the gland nut. Also of
interest to me is that although the bolts appear the same size all the
heads vary a bit in size, hand made perhaps? Sadly I can't find a date or
manufacturers mark anywhere. I shall clean it up a bit and post another
picture.


Mike


Mike.

Anyone with that in their back garden deserves the post to be seen by a
larger audience.

Adam

On Fri, 01 May 2009 21:57:35 +0000, ARWadsworth wrote:

I saw this on free.uk.diy.home and have x-posted it to uk.d-i-y


"Muddymike" wrote in message
om...
I have now opened up the well in the back yard and ordered a pump. The
trouble was the well had a deck 8m down supporting an old pump with no way
a new pump could be lowered into the water from above. It seems it was
complete luck that my original weight on a string found its way through a
small crack to the water when I dangled it down through the little hole I
first drilled.

So the old pump had to come out. Luckily the pumping mechanism was still
partially intact with a steel rod reaching almost to the surface

Beautiful! :-)

We've got an old well-house out back and the visible part of the pit goes
down about 3m - to decades-old debris that's just been thrown down
there over the years.

It's on the to-do list to go digging and see how far down it goes at some
point, when I can motivate myself; I really don't know at the moment if
the debris layer is shallow and will just uncover an old well-head, or if
it's several metres thick...

cheers

Jules