Water, Romans and a brief squirrel update

I never thought I’d say this, but thank heavens it’s raining!

About six weeks ago, our water in the house stopped. Ever since we moved to Nutsford House three years ago, the anxiety-inducing question of what would happen if our spring dried up has hung over us like a dripping tap!

The actual, real life short-term solution to this issue would be that the private water engineers who look after us would bring a lorry-load of water which we would use. But then what? The spring fills back up, presumably, and we carry on. But the great unknown is the effect of the changing climate and whether drier summers will make this more of a consistent threat. And, with only perhaps 1% of the UK population in properties supplied by private water, this may not be at the top of any government’s priority fix list.

But having said that we have been weighed down by the threat of running out of water for three years, in reality, while it was certainly a concern when we moved in, in the period from September 2022 to January 2025 our worries have been minimal, for one simple reason. It very rarely stopped raining during that time!

The last nine months (January to August 2025), however, have been incredibly dry. We’ve never seen the grass here this colour, never seen the paths around us so hard and never seen the stream in the woods so dry. 

Louis’s favourite walks always contain water but both at Haddon Hill and Anstey Common, his favourite bathing spots either dried up completely or were so reduced in water depth that Louis struggled to submerge. Indeed, at one time the water level had dropped so much in the Anstey pool that a particularly pointy rock was revealed and Louis didn’t even dare approach the pool for fear of what might happen!

There is just one section of our woods, however, where mud has still remained even through the driest summer months. Louis and I head down there from time to time to reminisce!

So, when the water in the house stopped working about six weeks ago, in the balmy, dry days of late July, we feared the worst. But, in actual fact, the problem was not an existential threat to our survival as a species but a faulty ballcock!

There was water, but not the water that we thought!

During investigations which eventually highlighted the culprit as the faulty ballcock in the tank in the garage, it was revealed that the water that has been supplying Nutsford House for the last three years, our wonderful clean, buttery water, was not getting to the house exactly how we thought it was.

It’s a long story and not one that anyone but a water engineer would be able to muster much enthusiasm for, but, in short, our main water supply from the spring is not going via a pumphouse. It works on a gravity-fed system and is coming directly from the spring, even though this seems to mean travelling across a valley and moving uphill.

On hearing this, my mind jumped immediately, as it so often does, to Ancient Rome. While not understanding the science behind a lot of what the Romans did, I remember how much they were admired by generations and societies that came after them for the technology they invented and used. Especially with water.

The authorities in medieval Rome were struggling to get the fountains to work successfully, and the problem was only solved when they reconnected them to the ancient water system and the old Roman aqueducts. The aqueducts also served to keep the sewers of ancient Rome clear, helping to prevent some devastating diseases nearly two thousand years before London and Joseph Bazalgette got around to dealing with similar problems.

So, maybe the fact that our water goes downhill and then uphill isn’t as miraculous as it might seem to an engineering novice like myself!

What is certain, however, is that it has started to rain again, we have a healthy supply of water and the spring is not dry (and did not dry up).

Whether any of that is connected to the disappearance of the squirrels and the woodpeckers, we don’t know. Both constant presences throughout the year, both have not been seen in two weeks! I wonder what those squirrels are up to …