The details of the house show that this photo was taken between about 1886 and 1898. There are several similar photos from around this time, but this is very sharp and shows a lot of small details. It also provoked some thoughts about of the land between the front garden and Upper Pond.

The other area to the south of the culvert is a bit of a mystery. It is fenced and it looks like it is part of Honeywood’s extended garden, but I have not, so far, found any evidence that it was ever part of the property either rented or freehold.
 
I guess the railings were taken down for scrap in the second world war. I don’t know when the shrubs were removed.

The Covid virus is obviously preventing us doing any practical work in the garden but it also leaves me with thinking time. There is a well in the garden which supplied water to the house. The existing well head with its windlass was installed in 1990 based on an old photo of the well at Whitehall in Cheam.
 
The Honeywood well-head is now in need of major repair and it has caused me to think about what the original was like. The well at Whitehall is about more than 20m deep so there would have been the need for a windlass and a long bucket rope. This would be quite unnecessary at Honeywood where the well is only 1.2m deep. My first thought is that there was a hand pump like the one on the corner of Pound Street and West Street. However, it seems that this sort of pump only became common in the 19th century and the well is almost certainly much older than that. So what was used? I have not found an immediately obvious answer. Investigation continues.

This blog is going to follow the development of the Honeywood Garden Project which is a collaboration between volunteers and staff from the Museum and The Friends. It will feature work and new discoveries and thinking about the garden.