All that was a few years ago and the four children have grown up: indeed,
Wesley’s three-year-old son, Henry, is himself making wishes by the well.
The five-bedroom property, which also comes with large gardens and tennis
court , is for sale for £1.35 million with Knight Frank (01442 861610).

That the former pub, which last served a pint in 1900, possessed a well isn’t
unusual. Before the installation of water pipes, every village had a well or
a pump; they were often meeting places and they figure largely in nursery
rhymes. Some reach 100ft or more into the bowels of the Earth. Several
cottages near my home, in a section of Essex greenbelt, still use well water
and none has ever run dry: handy when hosepipe bans are imposed.

Despite heavy rain in the past few weeks, and the prediction of more to come,
Britain still faces a critical shortage of groundwater. So happy the family
that has a deep well or space to dig one.

Home owners are allowed to take up to 4,400 gallons of groundwater a day
without a licence, vastly more than the average family would use, although
it would need to be tested and purified if used for drinking and cooking as
well as watering the garden.

In times gone by, wells were built by constructing the brickwork at surface
level and digging the earth out from beneath, so the whole structure could
be gradually lowered to the water table and below.

That is what John and Lyn Mercy did at the Kentish triple-kiln oast house they
bought as a derelict building in 1965 in search of “the good life”. But the
good life nearly turned into a nightmare.

They set about converting the vast empty space into a home, begging, borrowing
and “rescuing” ancient building materials for both the house and the garden.
In 1986, disaster struck when John suffered a near-fatal stroke, paralysing
his left side. It took him remarkable willpower just to learn to walk again;
sadly, as he was left-handed, it meant an end to his career as a dentist.
With difficulty, however, he relearned to wheel a barrow. Finances became
tight but the couple devoted all their energy to making a magical garden
that delights visitors young and old when it is opened every year.

After a prolonged drought and hosepipe ban in the 1980s, they set about
water-divining and, in the same way that old well diggers dropped their
brickwork, used concrete drainpipes, about 4ft in diameter, digging them to
the Wealden clay 14ft below the surface. A submersible pump was added, and
the problem of water shortage was solved.

These days, their property, Whitehurst, near Marden, includes a treetop
walkway approached by a wrought-iron staircase, a child-size summerhouse,
water gardens, henhouses and grass-roofed sheds, and 1.5 acres of garden. It
is for sale for £995,000 with Strutt and Parker (01732 459900), although
John and Lyn are not in a rush to sell: they want to open the gardens a
final time this year before taking on a new project.

For those hankering after a home well, the village well in Dummer, five miles
from Basingstoke, is in the garden of Well House, on sale for £580,000 with
Knight Frank (01256 350600). The well itself is owned and maintained by the
local authority; the Grade II, 17th-century thatched cottage has three
bedrooms and sits on a quarter of an acre .

On a far grander scale is Saling Hall, in Great Saling, Essex. An Elizabethan
mansion, it sits in 12 acres of woodland and water gardens and has stables,
cellars and all the necessities of grand living. There are also two front
doors; at one point in the late 18th century, the mansion was owned by two
sisters, each of whom was married to a naval officer. The property has been
owned for 40 years by the wine writer, Hugh Johnson. It has a well, 35ft
deep in a gravel seam, the water from which is pumped into a pressure tank
next to the stable cottage, occupied by the gardener. The estate is for sale
for £2.4 million with Savills (01245 293233).

Anyone buying a home with an existing well, or who plans to dig one, should
seek advice from the Well Drillers’ Association (welldrillers.org).

For sale

Sanctuary: Well House, in Dummer, Hampshire, has many period features;
the well in the garden is owned and cared for by the local authority. For
sale for £580,000 with Knight Frank (01256 350600; knightfrank.co.uk).

Hugh’s haven: The wine writer Hugh Johnson is selling Saling
Hall, his Elizabethan manor house in Great Saling, Essex. Tt has seven
bedrooms, six reception rooms, a separate cottage, and well on 12 acres. On
sale for £2.4 million with Savills (01245 293233; savills.co.uk