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Water well archive

Publisher
British Geological Survey (BGS)
Updated
13 August 2026
Topic
Not set
Licence
Not set

Summary

100,000 paper records of water wells, including details of lithologies, well construction, water levels and yields and water chemistry. Details lodged by drillers under statute. Includes approximately 90% of water boreholes in England & Wales, less in Scotland. There is a high density of information over major aquifers and urban areas with new data added as it is received from drillers and other outside organisations. The level of detail within individual records varies, reflecting historical changes in reporting practices.

Data links

Link Format Preview Updated
National Well Record Archive HTML 13/8/2026

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Additional information

Source Metadata
XML, HTML
Date added
13 August 2026
Harvest GUID
9df8df51-63da-37a8-e044-0003ba9b0d98
Extent (Latitude)
55.8300° to 49.8600°
Extent (Longitude)
-7.1100° to 2.1200°
Dataset reference date (creation)
1940
Frequency of update
daily
Access constraints
The copyright of materials derived from the British Geological Survey's work is vested in the Natural Environment Research Council [NERC]. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a retrieval system of any nature, without the prior permission of the copyright holder, via the BGS Intellectual Property Rights Manager. Use by customers of information provided by the BGS, is at the customer's own risk. In view of the disparate sources of information at BGS's disposal, including such material donated to BGS, that BGS accepts in good faith as being accurate, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) gives no warranty, expressed or implied, as to the quality or accuracy of the information supplied, or to the information's suitability for any use. NERC/BGS accepts no liability whatever in respect of loss, damage, injury or other occurence however caused.
Responsible party
British Geological Survey (distributor, originator, pointOfContact, custodian)
ISO 19139 resource type
dataset
Metadata language
eng