Victorian pump in Tubwell Row, Darlington, marks well location

A significant piece of Darlington's history was brought back into the spotlight when a cast iron Victorian pump was installed in the town centre in 1992.

The pump was placed on the location of a municipal well which had been hidden from sight for a century in the town's Tubwell Row.

This Victorian cast iron pump marks the spot of the original Tub Well, in Darlington, rediscovered in 1992 after being covered up for a century (Image: ANDREW WHITE)

For centuries, Darlington was served by three principal wells - in Houndgate, Skinnergate and the most important of all, the central Tub Well.

The well was originally dug down to where a spring of clear water gushed to the surface. To make it easier, a bucket was rigged up to go down to the water. A primitive pump was then erected to suck the water up to the road level.

Its importance to the town goes back centuries. In 1545, the town was known as 'Darneton-upon-the-well, thought to be a reference to the Tub Well.

Perhaps the only picture of the Tub Well in situ, taken shortly before it was filled in in 1886 (Image: THE NORTHERN ECHO)

The well is mentioned in the first of the Borough Books, dated 1612, which orders that anyone found guilty of contaminating the water - by washing "clothes, fish or such like things" - would have to pay a substantial fine.

These fines were enforced by the overseers of the well, two officials paid to ensure water quality.

Sometime around the 1830s, new cast iron pumps were installed over the wells. This caused a problem in Skinnergate because the hand-action pumps sucked in water from a wide area, including from the nearby Friends’ burial ground.

Live animal markets and dungheaps also contributed to the contamination of the wells, and in 1846, the Pease family established the waterworks at Broken Scar to pump comparatively clean water out of the Tees and into the town centre.

This meant the polluted town centre wells could be closed. Filthy Skinnergate was officially filled in on January 3, 1886, and the Tub Well went soon after.

The site of the former well had been forgotten in time until it was unearthed in 1992 during construction work on the Cornmill Centre. It was found to be 11ft 6ins deep - and still contained about 4ft of water.

Foreman Mike Douglas looks into the well that was discovered on Tubwell Row in July 1992 (Image: THE NORTHERN ECHO)

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The council decided to cover the well back up but this was contested by townspeople who wanted it to be marked as it was a major part of the town’s history - arguing that without a reliable fresh source of water, there would be no town.

Step forward Harry Walker of Cleatlam, near Staindrop. He offered a cast iron Victorian pump which he had kept, unused, in his cellar, since purchasing it some 50 years earlier.

And so it is that his iron pump now stands proud on the site of the historic Tub Well, marking a new chapter in retelling the tale of the main source of water in Darlington for at least three centuries.

A plaque at the spot of the original Tub Well, where the Victorian cast iron pump now stands (Image: ANDREW WHITE)

Thanks to Chris Lloyd for his help in compiling this feature.