The Maharajah's Well

Beneath an ornate cast iron Indian domed canopy lies a 368 foot deep well in Stoke Row our neighbouring village. It took a year for the well to be dug by hand through the chalk. Completed in 1864, the well, a hexagonal well-keeper's cottage and a cherry orchard were all paid for by the Maharajah of Benares (Ishree Pershad Naryan Singh) who learnt about the water shortages in the Chilterns from the local squire and employee of the East India Company (Edward Reade) who was, ironically, in India helping to sink a well for a village in Benares. The cherry orchard (the Ishree Bagh) was intended to provide income for the maintenance of the well.  The design is based on a pavllion at the Maharajah's palace. The well was used for more than 70 years. I think I would have enjoyed the job of well-keeper!

If finding an Anglo-Indian inspired structure in an Oxfordshire village on a dark, wet and windy January day isn't surreal enough, I've ramped it up with a double exposure, using a page of marbling from a book published at the same date (but mainly because I realise that my camera sensor needs cleaning).