228 MINERAL WATERS AND MEDICINAL SPRINGS OF ESSEX.
London Clay, lying on the south side of the main road. It lay
due south from Forest House, about three hundred yards from
the road, and not very much further from the new Grange Hill
Station of the Great Eastern Railway. A Mr. College, who has
lived many years in the parish (in which he was born), stated
that he could remember the well as a hollow place, bricked
round, with steps leading down to the. water. The surplus
water was conveyed through pipes into an adjacent ditch. The
well was, however, drained, filled up, and turfed over about
thirty years ago by a Mr. Radley, acting on behalf of the then-
owner, a Mr. Fowell, and there is now nothing to indicate its
exact site.
The windmill mentioned by Morant was struck by lightning
and burned down about fifty years ago, and the trees he men-
tions as surrounding the well (part of old Hainault Forest) were
probably cut down even earlier. About fifty yards from the
reputed site of the well, there is a small stagnant field-pond for
the use of the cattle of an adjacent farm—probably the "hole
or hollow place" mentioned by Morant.
The former fame of the well is, however, not forgotten locally.
The Mr. College mentioned above spoke of it as "The Purging
Well," and another resident interviewed knew it by the same
name. Mr. College mentioned a Dr. Reeve, formerly of
Chigwell Row, who, he said, had declared the water of the well
to be "as good as any medicine" as a purgative.
Mr. Dalton points out that, around the site of the well, the
London Clay is not much short of its full thickness (about
400ft.), so the water may be attributed to some of the sandy
beds which mark its gradual passage into the Bagshot sands.
(13).—The Havering Spring.—Morant, after describing the
spring at Chigwell Row, noticed above, continues114 :—
" In Havering Liberty, there is also another Purging Water, in a well near
Bone (or, rather, Bourne) Bridge, under which runs a small stream of common
water."
No other writer, so far as we know, alludes to this well, but
the fact of its having been regarded formerly as a medicinal
well is still remembered locally. A woman living in a cottage
close to Bourne Bridge was able at once to direct Mr. Christy to
114 Hist. of Essex, i., p. 164 (1768). The "Gentleman" (Hist. of Essex, iv., p. 3n.: 1770)
merely follows Morant.