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In areas where there were house there may have been dumb wells. These were shafts dug down to the chalk, sometime 10 to 20 feet deep. to get rid of unwanted water - the equivalent of a modern soakaway - but left as an empty shaft. The newspaper article refers to an accident involving a old dumb well in Dunstable.

It is recorded that the houses built in Boundary Road were initially supplied with dumb wells.