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| Pump outside Hideout pub. Image courtesy Google Maps. |
Do
we know anything about the well under the pump near The Hideout?
Imagine if it was made a feature, internally illuminated and with a
walk-on, structural glass, see-through cover? (I think they did this
with a well that was discovered in the square in Kildare town). How wide
or deep is it? Maybe it's just a narrow shaft, but I would have thought
these wells were dug by hand in the 19th century and lined with stone
or brick. So it would have had to be at least wide enough to use a
shovel and pick axe comfortably. The first edition 6" OSI map from c.
1837 doesn't show pumps, but the 25" map from c. 1900 shows them marked
with the letter "P" in several locations in the town: One at the Carlow
Stables just before the entrance to the Nicholastown housing estate,
this one at The Hideout, in Bardon's yard, another one behind Liffey
View House on the hill and yet another just before the cottages at
Hillside.
I
presume the reason knobs were removed from "fountains" (which were
connected to the mains supply) and handles from pumps (or the linkages
removed internally) was due to health and safety concerns. From what I
recall, the pump at Harristown was still working in the 1990s. what
about the one in Mile Mill and Brannockstown?
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| Map image courtesy Tailte Éireann |
