The original water well is still located on the Le Barn property and dates back to the 1700’s. This hundred-acre estate was originally a cow and horse farm and the purpose of the well was to deliver ground water for drinking, cooking, washing, irrigation, and overall animal and farm maintenance.
This cylindrical water well is the only stone structure on the property that uses a bit of cement to hold it in place. The rest of the dry-wall structures throughout the property are made without any cement at all! Each stone was hand-selected for its particular shape and size, and was fitted together to interlock into beautiful patterns of rustic mosaics, which is very unusual to find in the New England area.
Interestingly, to this day, European folklore is associated with water wells (or its more familiar name, wishing wells). It is thought that any wish whispered above a well would be granted. The notion of granting a wish was connected with the presence of water because a number of deities, or gods were assumed to have lived in water. In addition, water was considered a blessing and a gift and because of that tossing a coin into the well after speaking your hearts desire was considered an offering of thanks to the deity residing in that particular well.
We invite you to Le Barn to toss a coin into our well for your own wish!
Call for an appointment at 203-253-7286.
I still use a 150year old hand dug well at my home in norther New Mexico. One just like yours. I would not recommend dropping metal coins in the well as this can contaminate the water (which will flow other places). Instead why not add a bucket and rope to use this water? It will add interest to the place and be useful.
Thank you for reading our blog & for the information. I enjoyed browsing through your blogs and photos are awesome. In what part of America is your farm?