February 27, 2025, 10:52 a.m. | Reading time: 4 minutes
In the southern English town of Woodingdean there is a truly bizarre thing: the deepest well shaft in the world ever dug by hand. Its construction was a crazy experiment at the time and took just as long as the spring was then used. The dimensions of the well, called Woodingdean Well, are still absolutely astonishing today.
One of the most popular games among us children used to be digging a hole, just to see how deep you could get. But in Woodingdean, a district of the city of Brighton and Hove near the southern English coast, there is a place that is the undisputed world record holder in these matters. For this superlative, it lies rather inconspicuously in front of the gates of the local hospital. This refers to a well called Wooddingdean Well, and it is no less than the deepest of its kind ever dug by hand. And its dimensions are still absolutely astonishing today, almost 170 years after its completion.
Lower than the Empire State Building high
Working naked because of the heat
Access still visible today
Lower than the Empire State Building high
The Woodingdean Well is an incredible 390 meters deep - nine meters deeper than the height of the legendary Empire State Building in New York. And that with a diameter of just over 1.20 meters, as the local site “My Brighton and Hove” reports. Digged with only muscle power, shovels and a stamina that bordered on stubbornness. Accordingly, the construction of the deepest hand-dug well began in 1858. At that time, of course, no one planned to set such a bizarre record. Rather, the goal was to be able to supply drinking water to a vocational school for adolescents that was also being built. Providing it via the local waterworks seemed too expensive to the builders, so they decided to look for their own source.
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However, after two years of layers of men digging continuously for 24 hours, no groundwater had been found in the shaft at Woodingdean Well. At that time the well was already an impressive 133 meters deep, which made the work considerably more difficult. The excavated earth first had to be brought to the surface by hand using ladders. Bricks were then passed down in the other direction to compact the meters fought for and thus prevent them from collapsing. An undesirable side effect that was probably not considered before: the deeper you dug, the hotter it got underground.
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Working naked because of the heat
As a result, workers at Woodingdean Well often worked naked due to the heat. Still no water was found. The experiment of approaching it through side arms extending from the skin shaft was also unsuccessful. Steam engines had to constantly pump air to the bottom of the pit so that the workers could breathe at such great depths. When their shift was over, the return to daylight ended up taking up to 45 minutes. Meanwhile, there was initial resentment in the community because the construction of the record-breaking fountain was costing the taxpayer the then outrageous sum of 90 pounds every week. Converted to today's times, that would be many times higher.
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Access still visible today
But on March 12, 1862, the time had finally come. Workers encountered groundwater at a depth of 1,285 feet, or more than 391 meters. This now flooded the Woodingdean Well, and after more than four years of construction the work was finally completed. Almost 260 meters of the world's deepest hand-dug well lies below sea level. It is all the more astonishing that, according to “Amusing Planet”, the epic masterpiece was shut down forever just four years after it was put into operation. You can still see the shaft in front of Woodingdean Hospital today. It is of course covered to prevent accidents.
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