Over the weekend I made an interesting discovery. About 10 feet off the southwest corner of my house (and about 10 feet from the road) is a concrete pad about 3 foot square. It has an access cover and a 4" hole. I was told that this was the cover for a cistern most likely used to hold storm runoff from the roof of the house (and its position relative to the downspouts seemed to agree with this). I had never opened the access, but could see that there is standing water through the 4" hole.

Saturday while doing some landscaping in the front of the house a neighbor stopped by, and after some chatting we decided to open it up and take a look.

Much to my suprise we discovered that what I thought was a closed cistern is in fact a hand dug, stone lined well, about 25 feet deep and holding about 16 feet of water. (The house is over 200 years old - the well is lined with the same stone as the house).

The water is a bit murky, and there is a dip tube which passes through the house foundation into the basement (Ohhh...thats what that pipe is for....).

We are currently using drilled wells for house water (100' or so deep) so I assume this hand dug well is in a different aquifier than our house water.

If I start to draw from this well will the water quality clear up? Should I try treating it in any way? Is it safe to use for outside use - irrigatiopn, annimals, etc? Would it be a good or bad idea to use it to supply a small pond (electric pump w/a float system)?

Any other input, advice, ideas??

I hate to have a resource and not use it...

Some additional info - the dip tube is relatively small, about 3/4 inch galvanized pipe. Obviously for drawing FROM the well, as opposed to pumping INTO it.
The shaft reverse tapers below the pad, opening up to about 6 or 7 feet in diameter by the time it is about 5 feet down.
I plan to try a look with a high powered light this evening to see if I can actually see the bottom, but my probing on Saturday seemed to indicate the bottom was partially covered w/stone, there seemed to be about a 2 or 3 square foot (appx) portion in the center that was "soft" - probably soil where the water seeped/flowed into the shaft.
I also plan to check for additional inlet/outlet pipes tonight, but don't ecxpect to find any. The downspout seems to actually pass beside this shaft, and there doesn't seem to be an overflow on the street side.

Thanks,

Gregg