Water a sustainable heritage

On March 19, 2003, during the 14th municipal competition, the municipality of Huppy won the national title of the Rustica prize for the restoration of five old wells in Paris.
Huppy, located on the Picardy plateau of Vimeu, known around the middle of the 19th century up to eighty-five wells on its territory. About twenty were located on the public domain where each villager could draw his water for his personal needs. Dug on a square, at a crossroads, in the recess of an alley and even sometimes in the middle of the public road as shown by old cadastres, they were dug at the initiative of several families of the same street with the agreement of the municipality. They were called neighbourhood wells. They were the sole financial responsibility of the applicants. The others, about sixty-five, were in the private domain. The wealthiest families dug their own wells, for its convenience, but this entailed digging and maintenance costs that only people with substantial incomes could bear.
The excavation was of an average depth of 40 to 50 meters with the creation of a room or a gallery in its bottom allowing a greater water reserve. Depending on the location of the town, some wells even reached 70 meters. They were raised with a small shelter. The masonry of this one was most often made of bricks, coming from the brickworks of the street Là-Haut, flint, sandstone or even millstone. The frame was made by the carpenter or the charron of the village. They used the wood of the region: oak, elm or chestnut, for the structure. The fir and poplar were used for the ornament. The roof was covered with thatches, at the very beginning, then with Picardy tiles afterwards. A simple mechanism, crank, rope and bucket, made it possible to draw water. A small door gave access to the inside of the well. Around each well, there was a clear zone of a distance equal to the depth of the well, allowing to raise barris with the coupling of a horse or a donkey.
Water being life, everyone respected it and all agreed to maintain the wells. Regular maintenance was a necessity. The cleaning, which is very important, was done in a period of drought, where the water table is at its lowest. It was used to clean, remove impurities and make small repairs. After each cleaning, 300 to 400 kg of quicklime was thrown into the well to revive the sources and disinfect them.