The water supply of Kent : with records of sinkings and borings / by William Whitaker ... with contributions by H. Franklin Parsons ... Hugh Robert Mill ... and J.C. Thresh ... Pub. by order of the lords commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury.
- Whitaker, William, 1836-1925.
- Date:
- 1908
Licence: In copyright
Credit: The water supply of Kent : with records of sinkings and borings / by William Whitaker ... with contributions by H. Franklin Parsons ... Hugh Robert Mill ... and J.C. Thresh ... Pub. by order of the lords commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![(Pabove or below). The nailbourne came through Barham on December 25th, and flooded between Barham and Elham on January 9th. “On January 15 this stream reached the springs in Bourne Park, and was flowing along the whole course the first time for seven years.'’ I am not sure that Mr. Buckingham is right in saying that the higher part of the stream at Etchinghill starts in Gault, apparently it is from Lower Chalk. By the end of January, 1904, the water began to sink and the stream fell off considerably in a month, and on May 29th, the course was dry from North Elham to Barham. On June 30th, the flow through Barham ceased, but it continued, though getting more feeble, from Bourne Park for three months. One of these ceased on December 4th, 1904, and the other in the second week of January, 1905. A villager gave the following dates for the last four times that the stream flowed through Bishopsbourne:—January 14, 1893, January 5, 1895, January 3. 1897,'and January 15, 1904. In an earlier paper, Mr. Buckingham notes the end of the dry course, at Bekesbourne, saying that “ near the ruins of Well Chapel, in the shelter of some trees, is a spring, which starts a stream for the remainder of its journey.’^1) The Petham Valley. In G. Dowker’s paper some old notices of the bourne in this valley are given by T. Page and J. Reid as follows. The nailbourne came into Shalmsford Street, Eebruary 22, 1772, and continued till June 16. It came again March, 7, 1774, and continued till June 28. Again, on January 12, 1775, and February 26, 1776. “ This nailbourne ariseth at Dean, in the parish of Elmsted, and at Duck Pit in the parish of Waltham.” From other data it came in January 1860, February, 1861, 1864 to June, 1865, and slightly in 1866, 1869 and January 1873.(2) The first year that I was working on the Geological Survey round Canterbury (1863?) this valley, which joins that of the Stour at Shalmsford Street, Chartham, was dry through- out; but the next year (after a wet season), water was running down its gravelly bottom from Petham with great rapidity, and the water in all the neighbouring wells had risen so that where in some cases it was generally about 40 ft. down, it could then be got by dipping, either with the hand or with a pole. In 1879, Mr. W. H. Hammond wrote on this nailbourne : (3) “ The Petham Nailbourne is chiefly fed from a number of springs which rise in a pond close to the village, but on some occasions, after a very rainy time, the springs break out at Duck Pit Farm [? Ileathe Farm of the newer map], about 1 E. Kent Sci. N. H. Sac. Rep., ser. ii., vol. iii., p. 16 (1903). 2 Geol. May., 1887, pp. 209, 212, 3 22nd Rep. E. Kent N. H. Soc., p. 22 (1880).](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28126737_0069.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
