Mulling over this post on technological obsolescence. The well is a good example, obviously, but so are the brickfields that once surrounded where I live.
Old maps show how, in the second half of the 19th century, the brickfields expanded from their original location close to the banks of the Medway to cover much of the area where I now live.
Census records show that male employment in the Kent brickfields rose from 3,335 in 1891 to 5,119 in 1901, an increase of 54% in just 10 years. Working on brickworks was often a family affair, including children, so total employment was higher.
But by 1911, male employment had fallen back to 3,198, and the Kent brickworks were in terminal decline. Now, they are gone, and little trace of them remains.
The point is that a technology becoming widely used and lucrative does not ensure its longevity. The Kent brickworks grew with the Victorian construction boom. As it faded, so did they. And they were also out-competed by cheaper bricks from elsewhere.
... the cheaper bricks entered the market because of another new technology. Kent bricks were transported to London by water. But the cheaper bricks were transported by rail.
The demise of the wells in this area is partly due to the decline of the brickworks. The 1863 OS map shows no fewer than four wells in the Temple Manor area, in addition to mine (which it does not record).
The 1895 map appears to show a new well transporting water by aqueduct to the new brickfields.
But by 1931, the brickworks, all but one of the wells, and the aqueduct, had disappeared from the map.
The brickworks were replaced by housing and sports facilities. And the wells just - disappeared. Whether they have been filled in or capped over, we don't know.
Except for my well, of course, which will now for the first time be shown on a map - the British Geological Society's map of wells and boreholes.
unroll please @threadreaderapp
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