Uploader's Comments

Mains water did not arrive in Rackenford until the 1950s. From about 1940 a windmill on the common drew water from the spring which feeds Trinity Well for some houses with taps, but even this supply was erratic and water often had to be fetched from the village wells, as it had every day for the cottages without them. One pumphouse was on the main street, on the other side of the road from The Stag and outside The Old Wellhouse. The other and the oldest was Trinity Well, originally a holy well believed to have healing powers for eye troubles. Later it was thought to have the best water for laundry. The starched collars and pinafores of the children in the picture will all have been laundered by hand in houses with no running water, and ironed by irons heated on the stove.