Professional drillers such as the Hertfordshire firm Smith & Webb prefer to rely

Professional drillers such as the Hertfordshire firm Smith & Webb prefer to rely on detailed geographical information – and this, for the moment, I do not have. Besides, to sink a borehole would probably cost at least pounds 3,000. The water turned out to be clear as gin, and after 900 gallons had been pumped out the level had fallen by only 18 inches.I suspect that the same applies to many areas of the Cotswolds, which harbour vast aquifers in the underlying oolitic limestone. During the summer a farmer summoned him to open a well which had been sealed for 60 years. A tape measure showed a drop of 128 feet to the surface of the water, and 148 feet to the bottom of the well. For instance in the Chilterns, which have huge aquifers hundreds of feet down in the chalk, there has been no hosepipe ban, and the veteran hydrological contractor Jack Hatt (motto: “Dam and Blast”) reckons that the vast natural sponges were filled to capacity by last winter’s rains. This scorching summer, however, has revived my interest.The indications from all over England are that ground water has weathered the drought much better than surface supplies.

Equally, I have never done anything about the underground stream, because my inquiry was essentially frivolous: I had ideas about making a small lake, but have never got round to it. The water was definitely there, he said; what was more, it was in a fissure, under pressure, and would rise to within 20 feet of the surface if tapped.As he was a serious, dedicated man, I have never doubted that he was right. Easily the best, he reported, was B, which was 70 feet down, flowing at 3,000 gallons per hour, and drinkable water.
Amazed by the precision of his findings, I called him in for a site visit, and a few passes with swinging rods confirmed his original diagnosis. Back it came with four subterranean watercourses marked on it, A, B, C and D.

A few sweet showers have laid the dust, but they have done nothing to dissolve the drought, which still holds the land in a grip of iron. With a hosepipe ban in force, and official mutterings about the likelihood of long-term water shortages, the temptation grows daily to look for a source of one’s own underground. Some years ago I made contact with a dowser who advertised that he could find water merely from studying a map. Fascinated but sceptical, I sent him a section of the 25-inches-to-the-mile Ordnance Survey.