Before mains water, local water sources and water management were essential for successful farming and ultimately survival. For example Parwich had an ‘ancient’ water meadow system designed to get grass growing as early as possible in the Spring to feed livestock as early as possible before the Winter feed stores were used up and the beasts had to be slaughtered.
The History Society hopes to undertake an archeology project investigating aspects of water management in our area. At this stage we are gathering what information we can about water usage in our area and also trying to find out what people are most interested in.
Domestic well found at Church Farm
A lot of houses had their own water supply and there was a system of wells and springs serving the community as a whole.
Communal water sources in Parwich, marked with green dots
The communal sources we know about are
- the Village Pump (now the bus shelter)
- Staines trough
- Pump Hill trough (supplied by pump that also took water up to the ‘dew pond’ at the top of the Hall gardens)
- Kiln Lane troughs
- spring below Knob Hall
- step down well at Church Farm (now in Court House garden)
- springs on hillside opposite the Crown Inn, now in the garden of Pool Croft
There may have been other sources used communally such as the covered well behind West View or the step down well by Brook Cottage but we need confirmation of this.
Given mains water arrived here with in living memory, there is potential to gather what information and stories people have, in addition to studying the evidence of remaining features and of old maps.
Nether Green Farm itself has at least two wells, one of which a very unusual design for Derbyshire (so far the only parallels identified are in Cornwall), but also there are seasonal springs that fed the water meadow system and interesting but not yet understood underground water channels and sluices.
Come along on Sunday to perhaps find out where your house used to get its water from, help us map the water sources in Parwich and the surrounding area, share any information you might have, have a look around Nethergreen Farm or even participate in archeological investigations there.
Updated 26/4/19 Come for all or part of the day, 10am to 4pm Sunday 28th April, Nethergreen Farm.
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