Reader Jo Bird has raised the issue of where the original inhabitants of Thixendale obtained their water once more. You may recall that the discovery of stone tools in barrows, or burial mounds, scattered across the landscape, provides evidence of human activity in the Thixendale region dating back to the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods (Middle Stone Age, 7,000–10,000 years ago, and New Stone Age, 5,000–7,000 years ago). For obvious reasons, communities sprang established near water sources, although Thixendale is located in a dry valley.
Jo observes: “I suspect that even if there has never been a water course, that in previous centuries when the water table was higher, there were wells…I was brought up in Norfolk where the underlying geology is chalk, as at Thixendale, and the village where I lived had no water course, but there were several wells which were in use until mains water was supplied, I recall in the early 1950s, but there is no sign of them now.”
She adds: “I remember the location of two wells in my Norfolk village, but there has been no trace of them for simply ages. There would have been more, I’m sure. You could perhaps ask anyone who lived at Thixendale before about 1950 if they knew of or used wells…it’s likely that there are lots of villages that once had wells but no trace of them now. People of 80ish or more might recall.”
Jo makes a valid point concerning wells, and anyone who is old enough to remember how they obtained water for their homes before to being connected to the mains is encouraged to share their memories. We concurred with Jo's assertion that wells would probably have provided Thixendale with water in later centuries, but we questioned whether the Mesolithic and Neolithic era's early inhabitants would have had the engineering know-how to penetrate deeply enough into the chalky layers below the ground to reach the fresh water that lay there.
Naturally, that prompted us to do some research online, and it astonished us to discover that they did. The first human-made drinking water well was discovered in Israel's Jezreel Valley and dates to about 6500 BC. Nothing comparable from that time period has yet been discovered on our beaches, but on Mainland, the main island of the Orkneys, there is a community known as Skara Brae, a stone-built Neolithic village. With a sophisticated water and drainage system that includes toilets with the ability to flush waste away from the house through specially created channels, it is one of the best-preserved prehistoric communities in Western Europe. It was inhabited from about 3000 BC until 2500 BC. Even though there is no mention of a well, this is evidence that prehistoric Europeans had the necessary engineering abilities. This is probably because fresh water was easily accessible from the adjacent Loch of Skaill.
We were engrossed as soon as we started reading about Skara Brae. We frequently give the Romans credit for teaching us complex engineering, but it appears that the inhabitants of this isolated island were already rather knowledgeable, as evidenced by the establishment of a thriving society concealed behind a collection of huge middens (mounds of garbage). This underground manner of life made sure that homes were protected from the severe northern coastal weather and that valuable heat was conserved. Flat stone slabs were used to construct a collection of one-room homes that each measured around 40 square feet, connected by covered passageways. Each home also had a working drainage system and "built-in" stone furnishings like beds, chairs, dressers, a central hearth, and a tank dug into the ground that researchers think was used to contain the filth from the preparation of their primary food source, fish. Tools, dice for games, food and drink containers, stone carvings, and jewelry in the shape of beads, necklaces, and pendants were among the artifacts found.
As previously established, Skara Brae's ancient inhabitants had no need to drill any wells. Nevertheless, we contemporary people have a propensity to desire for our dreams to come true while throwing loose coins down anything that resembles a well. Visitors to Skara Brae have been dropping their coins into what they believed to be a wishing well for years in the hopes of winning the lottery. Unfortunately, as one funny tour guide observed, they have literally been flushing their money down the drain!
