98 
THE MIDDLE LIAS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
paragraphs recording the falling-off of water supply are frequent 
in the newspapers. The history of the struggles, and successes, 
and failures in various parts may be read in numerous Reports, 
and there is a great similarity in them ; spite of the deepening 
of wells, increase of pumping power, going to greater dis¬ 
tances, etc., the available water is getting less. 
At Northampton the same kind of thing has been taking 
place. In 1836 a shaft was sunk near to Kingsthorpe, at a 
point about 2£ miles N.E. of Northampton, with the object 
of finding coal, and according to the account left of this sink¬ 
ing, when the Middle Lias was pierced, at a depth of 210 feet,* 
a large quantity of water was met with, which was estimated 
at 36,000 gallons per hour—that is, about 864,000 gallons per 
day. No use was made of the water, but the finding of it 
induced the Water Company of Northampton to sink a well 
into the Middle Lias about ten years afterwards. This well 
was made on a piece of ground near to the Billing Road, at a 
point about two miles South of the Kingsthorpe one ; it was 
sunk to a depth of 150 feet, and then a bore hole, 21 inches 
in diameter, was made some 18 feet deeper. About 500,000 
gallons a day was obtained, and the water rose to within 60 
feet of the surface. This supply was made available in 1848. 
It very soon became evident that the water level was sinking ; 
however, as there was an increased demand for water, a 
second well was sunk within 40 feet of the first in 1866, and 
with the aid of larger pipes and more powerful pumps, a yield 
of 860,000 gallons per day was obtained. This increased 
yield of course produced a more rapid fall in the water level, 
and in 1874 the amount of water that could be pumped had 
considerably diminished, and its head level in the well been 
reduced from 90 feet to 20 feet. About this time the well was 
deepened by divers, but the supply of water obtainable, and 
the level of that water, has been diminishing ever since, though 
the latter at a less rapid rate than the former. The water 
now (1884) does not rise above the Rock-bed, the top bed 
of the Middle Lias, I believe, and the quantity is totally 
inadequate to the supply of the town. 
The reasons for this decline in water level and consequent 
yield of water are tolerably evident, for other wells in this 
district, and wells in different geological formations in other 
districts, have the same tale to tell :—(1) More water is being 
pumped from the pervious beds annually than would ever get 
in naturally in the like period. (2) Less water gets into these 
* There are reasons for doubting the accuracy of this depth. The 
matter will be referred to later on. 
