Maharajah's Well and the Golden Elephant Statue

Maharajah's Well and the Golden Elephant Statue

Highlight • Monument

Maharajah's Well and the Golden Elephant Statue

Cycling

4.8

(47)

Road cycling

4.9

(43)

Hiking

5.0

(28)

Gravel riding

5.0

(2)

This Highlight is in a protected area

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Chilterns National Landscape

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Location: Stoke Row, South Oxfordshire, Oxfordshire, South East England, England, United Kingdom

Tips

May 3, 2020

Cycling

A gilded elephant stands on top of the cast iron machinery of this unique Victorian well at Stoke Row, Oxfordshire, an amazing gift from an Indian prince.

The 368-foot deep well, under its domed canopy (made by a foundry in Wallingford), was paid for by the Maharajah of Benares (now Varanasi). He had met the young Edward Reade, the local squire, who spent many years in India where among other work he helped to sink a well for a village in Benares. He told the Maharajah that drought conditions also occurred on parts of the Chilterns.

Mark Boden

May 13, 2020

Road cycling

The well sits in the pretty little village of Stoke Row.

The 368-foot deep well, under its domed canopy (made by a foundry in Wallingford), was paid for by the Maharajah of Benares (now Varanasi). He had met the young Edward Reade, the local squire, who spent many years in India where among other work he helped to sink a well for a village in Benares. He told the Maharajah that drought conditions also occurred on parts of the Chilterns.

The Chilterns Cycling Guide

May 31, 2020

Road cycling

At Stoke Row you will find The Maharajah's Well. Opened in 1864 and dug mostly by hand; it took over a year to complete and is deeper than double the height of Nelsom's Column.