2 AV. WniTASEE, — ADDRESS : 



Springs. 



The celebrated ChacTwell Spring is close to the soiithern edge of 

 the marsh of the Lea, about two thirds of a mile south-west of 

 St. Mary's Church, Ware, and its waters are taken for the supply 

 of the New lliver Company. Eeference was made to this spring 

 before the Royal Commission on Metropolitan Water Supply (1892), 

 Mr. J. Francis, Engineer to the New River Company, saying that 

 he had made careful observations to find whether the pumping at 

 any of the Company's wells "has any effect upon the spring, and 

 it has none whatever. Broadmead well is within a quarter of 

 a mile of the spring, but there is no communication whatever 

 between the two." Mr. Topley adds that, " Knowing the large 

 amount of pumping and seeing the position of the wells in relation 

 to that spring, I should certainly have expected that the Chadwell 

 si)ring would cease to run altogether. . . . It is a very 

 extraordinary thing with the large amount of pumping within 

 such a short distance that that spring should still continue to 

 run." * 



It should be remembered that, besides the Broadmead well, there 

 is also the Amwell End well, less than three quarters of a mile 

 from the spring, and the Amwell Hill well, about a mile and 

 a quarter off, all being lower down the valley than the spring, as 

 also are the Ware Waterworks. 



At the time when this evidence was given I had not seen the 

 Chadwell Spring for many years, and shared Mr. Topley' s surprise 

 that it had not been affected by the long-continued pumping, f It 

 was not until just as the work of the Royal Commission was closed 

 and later that I had the chance, on two occasions, of again seeing 

 this spring, which of course was then examined more carefully 

 than it had been long before, at a time when I was thinking only 

 of the mapping of the geology of the district and not of springs 

 or of underground water. The result of this examination was 

 to deprive me of any wonderment that the spring had not been 

 affected by the pumping, and to lead me to be prepared rather to 

 wonder if it should be affected, at least unless the amount of 

 pumping were greatly increased. 



Let us examine the condition of things at Chadwell. The spring 

 is just on the Alluvium or marshland of the Lea. The inverted 

 cone which has been formed in a way usual with Chalk springs is 

 evidently deep, for when the water is clear, no one standing on the 



* 'Mimitesof Evidence,' pp. 197, 317 (1893). 



t This is a disputed point. Evidence to the contrnrj' may possibly be brought 

 before the Society. — Ed. 



