Spring water continues to flow without interruption at Barnet’s historic Physic Well despite summer months with no rain

While many natural ponds around the town have dried out due to the prolonged drought and successive heatwaves, the water level at High Barnet’s historic Physic Well has remained constant.

When visitors descended the wellhouse steps at the monthly open day, they were shown the two tanks filled by mineral water from a spring which was first mentioned in a Tudor guidebook in the late 16^th century.

In almost 20 years since Barnet Museum first started campaigning to get the wellhouse restored and re-opened, volunteers – including Bob Langley above – say the water level has rarely ever changed.

Occasionally during exceptionally wet weather the well tanks overflow a little, but otherwise the water level always remains at a constant depth.

All around High Barnet numerous ponds filled by surface water have dried out.

Joslin’s Pond on Hadley Green, where generations of children have fed the ducks, has been reduced to an expanse of mud with the duck house beached in the middle.

Hadley Green’s largest pond, Brewery Pond, next to site of the former Hadley Brewery, is filled by a spring and although the water level is much lower than usual it provides a refuge for ducks and other wildlife.

After re-opening in 2018 following repairs, Barnet Physic Well, famous for its chalybeate spring water, has become a popular attraction on its monthly open days on Saturday afternoons between February and November.

Once fashionable to drink the water was sold in London and attracted gentry to Barnet because it was said to have healing and other medicinal qualities.

The well’s most famous visitor – and consumer – was the renowned diarist Samuel Pepys who after lunch at the Red Lion in 1664, continued to the well “and there I drunk three glasses and went and walked and came back and drunk two more”.

Among the open day visitors were Eamonn Brady who as a child lived opposite in Well Road and who had never been inside the well house or seen what the well looked like.

“When I was a child in the 1960s the wellhouse was always padlocked.

“We used to play football on the green outside so what went on inside the well house was always mystery” said Mr Brady – above second from right with well guide Charlie, second from the left.

“Soon after we moved from Well Road to Potters Bar, so I never got the chance to look inside. As you can imagine this was something I had to put right.”

Mr Brady was fascinated to descend into the well chamber and learn more about its history.

He recalled a family story about how his grandma and aunt, who lived next door in Well Road, saying that one night they separately saw a black shadow cross the landing of their houses.

“They both described an old-fashioned man with a hat on, and we have always wondered whether it was the ghost of Samuel Pepys.”

Open days at the Physic Well are always a moment of great pride for Mike Jordan who led the campaign to get the well house restored and re-opened.

Mr Jordan – seen here with a mural celebrating Barnet history which was donated by Waterstones bookshop – was chairman of trustees at Barnet Museum for 14 years and on retirement was appointed president.

For many years the Physic Well, which is in Well Approach, a short walk from Barnet Hospital, was in such a sorry state that the building was placed on Historic England’s at-risk register.

The well house was constructed in 1937 to protect the dis-used well and its spring. Restoring the building to its full mock-Tudor glory and making it safe for visitors cost £150,000. It is now in the care of Barnet Museum.

“My main commitment nowadays is the well,” said Mr Jordan.

“When we open the doors on a Saturday afternoon every month, we are always so pleased to welcome visitors to what is one of the best-preserved medicinal wells in the country.

“We spent so much time with Barnet Council and Historic England rescuing the wellhouse the sense of achievement is really gratifying. If I leave anything to Barnet, it is helping to preserve the Physic Well for the future.”

Five heatwaves and two months without rain has dried out the ponds on Hadley Green except for the Brewery Pond which is fed by a spring and is next to the site of the former brewery which had its own artesian well.

Hadley Brewery, opened in around 1700, was demolished in 1978.

Unlike the duck house on Joslin’s Pond, which is beached on the mud, the duck house at the Brewery Pond is still afloat – the duck houses were purchased in 2018 by Keith Chapman of Hadley Residents Association.

Joslin’s Pond was named after William Joslin, who lived in one of the Georgian cottages next to the green and who in the 1880s ran a nearby bakery.