Account of a Well-sinking made by the Great Western Railway Company at Swindon; with Lists of Fossils

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1. The Great Western Railway Company being desirous of obtaining good supply of water for use in their locomotive and stationary engines at Swindon, determined, in 1883, to sink a well. The spot chosen for this undertaking is on the northern side of the railway, and at the western end of the Company's works. Two shafts have been sunk, very close together―one known as the South Well, to a depth of 246 feet, and the other as the North Well, to a depth of 736 feet 2 inches. The details of the strata passed through in the two sinkings, to the depth of 246 feet, are practically the same, the shafts being 8 feet in diameter and sunk the entire depth. The object of the additional shaft was for convenience in pumping and in carrying away the material excavated. The surface of the ground is 329 feet above the Ordnance datum. From a practical point of view this well has not been altogether successful; for, although the promoters did not actually get into hot water, they tapped a supply of luke-warm and very saline water. The Corallian beds, which occur between the depths of 72 and 112 feet, yielded the first supply of water, which issued at the rate of about 1000 gallons per hour; but neither in quality nor in quantity was it deemed satisfactory. It contained 144 grains of saline matter per imperial gallon. Water again was met with at the depth of 730 to 736 feet, rising