THE STORY OF THE DUNHOLME SPRING (First published in the Dunholme News, May 1990 by the late T R Leach) It was agreed ‘that workmen be at once employed (under proper superintendence) to bore for water and make apparatus or a well for supply of same on property belonging to the Parish and allowed for this purpose, which is situate within reasonable and accessible distance of all the respective houses of the parties and that the said George Vickers (party hereto) be and is hereby appointed such superintendent and to give all proper orders and pay wages and other necessary expenses appertaining thereto. George Vickers kept a record of the boring: “Boring for Water at Dunholme Site chosen by Faith Taken in hand by Mr. George Vickers of Dunholme (assisted by Mr. Alfred Storr of Welton who provided the boring apparatus and worked with the help of the said George Vickers from February 8th 1892 to April 8th 1892. 102 feet of boring necessary before water was reached. Kinds of sub soil etc bored through as follows: 5 feet of stone and sand, 10 feet of gravel, 6 feet of clay, 5 feet of hard flint rock, 29 feet of clay, 6 feet hard rock, 16 feet softer rock, 6 feet clay, 5 feet hard flint rock, 9 feet clay, 6 feet sandstone, 5 feet sand, 2 feet rock limestone.  Total 102 feet overflow top amid great rejoicing”. When water was reached it shot up to a great height — my grandfather was present and said it seemed as high as the church tower.  The force of water was certainly very strong, and in 1904 the bore produced 20,000 gallons of water a day.  The spring made a considerable noise and in the First World War boards were placed in the tank to muffle it lest German Zeppelins should hear it!  It soon became a familiar landmark and does not appear to have existed for long before it gained a reputation as a cure for rheumatism, eye troubles and a multitude of other ailments.  It was surmounted by an elaborate construction of wood and bark.  The water flowed into a tank and an overflow pipe took the surplus water to the beck.  The value the people of Dunholme placed on their spring was tested many years later in 1937 when it was feared that the Welton Rural District Council, who had recently installed water mains to supply the village, decided that the spring water was going to waste and should he piped to the main supply.  Despite the mains supply, Dunholme people continued to drink the water from the spring, and in the 1960’s several households used it regularly.  When the controversy was at its height a public meeting was held at which the villagers decided to fight the R.D.C. to what the newspapers called ‘the bitter end’.  One resident declared that “A finer drinking water is not to be found anywhere else.  Further than that, the water from this spring has valuable medicinal properties which are well known and that, to my mind, now that we have the other water, is the chief factor for keeping this spring open”.  He added that only a day or two previously a Lincoln doctor had sent a boy to bathe his eyes at the spring.  “I am convinced”, he said “that if anybody who suffers from gallstones will drink this water, the stones will be dissolved.  You cannot do away with a spring like that”.