Deepest hand-dug well

The deepest well dug by hand is the Woodingdean Water Well, which descends 391.6 m (1,285 ft) below Woodingdean, a town on the eastern outskirts of Brighton, East Sussex, UK. The well was excavated between 1858 and 16 March 1862, when workers finally struck water.

The construction of the well was ordered by the Brighton Corporation (the forerunner of today's Brighton & Hove City Council) as part of the development of a workhouse and industrial school where the youth of the city could be saved from "the bane of pauperism". Ironically, considering what the construction would entail, the decision to sink a well on the property was made as a cost-cutting measure to avoid having to pay the local water company.

It was assumed that the well would only need to be around 121 m (400 ft) deep, which was achieveable with an almost-free labour pool in the form of workhouse residents and older children. After the well hit that depth without any sign of water, additional tunnels were dug out in all directions, and when those also turned up nothing, the descent continued.

By this point the workers were some distance below sea level, hacking their way through layers of chalk and flint. All the spoil had to be hauled up using winches and buckets, with seven winch stations set into the walls of the well. The air in the bottom of the well was fetid and made the workers sick, but it was 45 minutes of climbing before they could be back out at the surface.

On the evening of 16 March 1862, workers reached the bottom of the well, only to realize that the thin layer of rock they were standing on – 390 m (1,285 ft) below the surface – was being pushed back up the shaft by the pressure of water beneath. They scrambled back up to the surface, with the water soon rising close behind them.

Today the workhouse has been been demolished and a hospital built on the site. The capped off wellhead sits just outside the main entrance.