An urban spring in the middle of a neighborhood. The old lady I met said it was “clean and tested annually”. She also said she had been drinking the water here since she was 3.
Nearest Address
Intersection of Forest St. and Oak St.
Directions from Nearest Address
The spring is on an unmarked road. (google maps calls it Oak Street Extension). As you drive up Oak St you will cross Forest St. at a 3way intersection. Head down the unmarked paved road, go down the little hill, there is the spring on your right.
I was just here today (May-16-2021) with my Dad. The water is great and an awesome flow as always. My Gram is from Exeter, NH and used to come here when she was young, but she’s been drinking her own well’s water since adult, so she rarely comes here. My Dad now lives in Haverhill, MA with City Water. City Water is awful, so we come here to get our water.
We usually go late in the day, like late afternoon to early evenings. Most of the time, there are no lines or people because of that. We fill at least 7-10 5-Gallon jugs, so we can have it for the whole month as our primary drinking water. The only thing I can taste in it is salt. Although it’s smooth and fresh, it’s a bit salty to me.
I’m a frequent visitor 1-2X per month to this Spring.
Jordan
As of January 9, 2023, the water has stopped flowing. Construction work has started on Rose Farm for 40 units and 55+ community. I heard that they were not going to interfere with the public access to the spring but so far there is a possibility that might not be the case. I have notified the local conservancy group The West Side Neighborhood Coalition which is part of the Exeter Area Conservancy.
Water has not been flowing since 12//30/22 …. Not a drop for days…
Not sure what is going on?
Someone please post here when it is up and running again and I will do the same…Ty
Had tried to link the Towns Response , but no go… Basically they said , Private Property, Not our Responsibility….
Visited today, still Nada 1/7/23
NOT LOOKING GOOD FOLKS…
I suffer from electrolyte issues and began drinking this water solely a months ago. Since then my labs have improved, so the mineral content must be good!!
Thank you for sharing this important information! I live near the spring and drink the spring water religiously. Exeter water has gone way down hill and I’m afraid to drink it because it tastes terrible now, compared to what it was 15 years ago, and I take a lot of medications. I’m just not sure what kind of chemicals is in the town water that could interfere with my meds.
We come from Mass. to get this water and have been for over a year. It is awesome. Sometimes there is a line to get it! We saw the Public Works Dept there one time and they say it is tested at least once/year. It’s delish!!
I am not a water expert but I wanted to test the mineral content so I could adjust as needed while home brewing beer.
As-is it’s a good mineral profile for brewing New England IPAs!
The water is saltier and has more minerals compared to regular tap or bottled water, anything 250+ ppm TDS counts as “mineral water”
I love it as a seltzer but have switched to Primo 5-gallon jugs for daily drinking water because of the detected PFBS, PFHXA, PFOA (see the Water Test Results section above for the full report) even though to my eye these levels are roughly the same as Exeter and Portsmouth ground water, they could be higher/lower depending on time of day/month/year and the spring won’t be tested daily.
Visited the Spring in Exeter NH today (1/7/15) VERY cold New England day today however; there was still 3 cars waiting to fill up. Brought along my TDS meter: TDS = 131 Temp = 53 Degrees
This water is excellent and has a nice silky smooth finish. YUM! Best of all, this spring is only 35 minutes away from my home.
I have lived in Exeter for most my life and drank this water on and off growing up. Now it’s about 90% of my water intake. My wife and I usually fill up 15-25 gallons every trip depending on what we take with us. There is usually a line so we tend to go a little later, even after dark since its a little creepy and keeps most people away.
May 12, 2023, I went to the spring after three weeks of it being dry to finding it totally repaired and virtually gushing! So happy to have this repaired and flowing. Thank you for fixing it! God Bless You!
I have walked down to this spring many a time to refill all my bottles of water, and it is delicious!
I have never heard of, seen, or gotten sick myself from this water. It comes out clean, and they recently replaced the runoff spout!
I went here in January 2016 and it’s easy to find. It’s called the Jailhouse Spring on googlemaps. There was a lady there when I got there who said she had been drinking the water for 40 years. There were 3 more cars waiting by the time I collected 5 gallons. The water was good and alleviated the issues I have with Boston City Water. No charge, easy parking, I recommend.
No more than 5.0% samples total coliform-positive in a month.
(For water systems that collect fewer than 40 routine samples per month,
no more than one sample can be total coliform-positive per month.)
Every sample that has total coliform must be analyzed for either fecal
coliforms or E. coli if two consecutive TC-positive samples, and one is also positive for E.coli fecal coliforms, system has an acute MCL violation.
I worry about this water. We live in a place where you can see the spring and drink from it regularly. There is always a rust colored fluid leaching up from the ground around the spring and today when we were down there we saw a giant puddle as black as ink. It is downhill so everything from our neighborhood runs down and goes right into the spring. I wonder if annual testing should be replaced with say…… daily testing?
I just tried it for the first time today. There was one person ahead of me filing 5-10 one gallon bottles. I filled two five gallon jugs, and one smaller one. By the time I got those filled two more cars pulled up behind me. The water tastes great and I’m hoping that it will be overall better than my tap water that’s full of fluoride.
** I would love to collaborate with anyone who has used this spring. There is coliform present in the test, and I would like to retest at a later date. Also, Sodium levels are high lowering the PH, thus I am wondering if salt run off is impacting the source. Any questions, feel free to email me at the above address. I hope this info helps.
I am concerned about he spring in exeter but would love to save money on bottled water.
I am not good at reading and deciphering the testing results. Have you retested it lately? Obviously I want the alkaline to be higher and less salt . What do you have concerns about? My daughter is pregnant and I surely do not want ot expose her to anything possibly harmful. What bottled water do you trust? Thank you ,Sally
You can do a DIY Filter (Berkey Copy) and filter down to 1 Micron, then boil it to be safe. After boiling…. Let it sit for 3 Days, to remove addition Gases and Radiation Decay. After that, you can drink it safely without worries.
We have been using this water for over a year now. We like it a lot. To be on the safe side, we are thinking about getting it tested. We have a call into the State. Any other thoughts about testing. Has any been done since your test in 2012?
This spring is easy to find, its about 50 yards from the intersection of Forest St. and Oak St. I filled a bottle but was too chicken to drink it before boiling it!
You can drink without boiling. I used to get it when living not to far and drank it for a couple years with never a problem. We recently moved from a home and had an artesian well with delicious water. We have moved to an apartment with city water and even after filtering with Brita can stil taste the chlorine, yuck! I’ll be going back to this spring again as my mother lives up the street.
Robin, Brita does not remove chlorine nor fluoride. Try Aquasana. They have great filters. I have the under the counter in the kitchen with the spout, You may need a plumber to install it and then going forward for filter replacement, you can do it yourself. Also have a shower filter to remove fluoride and chlorine, and my hair and skin feel great. The shower filter is really easy to assemble.
I discovered this spring about 7 years ago and filled up my glass Carboys many times here. Best quality spring water I’ve ever tasted. Clean, pure, natural.
So I’ve been going there for a few years now but for the past week it has been either trickling or completely dry. Does anyone have any recent information?
Spring etiquette- if there is a line of cars, you just park behind and wait your turn. I thought they were for the houses next door but I was rudely told to wait in line.
Also bring a smaller container to fill the larger 5 gal jugs with. I had to find something to do that with.
Great spring. Glad it’s here. The old men also were telling me “there’s a line because it’s the best water in the state!“
Drinking pure spring water is one of the most important things we can do for our health. Our bodies are over 99% water at the molecular level, so water affects every aspect of our biology. Yet, not all water is created equal. Almost all the bottled spring water available is pasteurized for shelf stability, which neutralizes many of the powerful health benefits such as increased hydrogen, healthy probiotics, and crystalline structure. For more about why unprocessed spring water is the best water to drink, read this.
The best way to guarantee you are getting real unprocessed spring water is to collect it yourself. This is a short and simple guide filled with information about how to gather spring water. We will cover how to find a spring, how to collect the water, how to honor the spring, how to store the water properly and other tips.
FindASpring.org is the best resource for locating a spring near you. However, not all springs are on the map. First, check the map to see if there is a spring in your local area. If there is, look at the reviews and comments. Has anyone shared helpful information about flow rate or posted a water test result? Is the spring in a pristine area? Do a bit of research and make sure the spring is safe to drink from. If you have any doubt about the purity, don’t risk it and get a water test, HERE. If you don’t see a spring on the map in your area, there still might be some that aren’t listed yet. First, ask the older generation who have lived in your area a long time if they know. You can also ask people in your community who might already get spring water such as people at a health food store or at a farmers market. Another great option is to view A US forest service map, where many springs have been marked. You can view these maps through the Gaia GPS or All Trails hiking apps on your phone. The map overlay you want is USGS Topo. Not all are easily accessible or ideal for drinking, but some are and it can be a fun adventure to find them. We have found over half a dozen great springs this way.
Once you’ve found your spring, figure out how you are going to gather the water. Is it right on the side of the road and easy to access or do you have to hike to it? We recommend storing spring water in glass instead of plastic to preserve the purity of the water. It is better for the environment, your body, and the water. Even BPA free plastic has toxic chemicals that can leach into water and cause health issues. If you do want to use plastic for safety reasons when filling at the spring, we recommend transferring the water to glass as soon as possible. FindASpring is sponsored by Alive Waters, which offers beautiful reusable glass. They have a 2.5 gallon option, which is a convenient size for carrying that isn’t too heavy. They also sell handles that you can use to transport the jugs even more easily. If you have to hike to access the spring, we recommend putting the water jugs into an extra large backpack to hike the water out with ease. We use Osprey packs that hold 2 jugs each. You can also use a wheelbarrow or even a stroller depending on how easy a walk it is.
Filling 2.5 Gallon Alive Waters Jug
When you get to the spring, remember to first give back before you take. Springs are considered sacred in indigenous cultures around the world for their life giving water and also as a connection to the inner earth. A powerful and simple way to give back is to clean up. Is there any trash that needs to be collected? Could you move any dead leaves or sticks to improve the flow rate? Show up in service. Some other wonderful ways to give is with a moment of expressing verbal gratitude, singing songs to the water, offering the water an ethically sourced crystal, a feather, or some other physical gift. Flowers are a popular and beautiful thing to offer, but please be careful to source organic ones as most flowers from the store are sprayed with pesticides and can be toxic to put near a spring. Also, flowers can attract bugs as they decay, so it can be best to offer them to the flowing water directly or a little downstream from the spring head.
When gathering the water, fill the jug as close to the spring head as possible, never gather downstream. Be very careful as wet glass is extremely slippery. Make sure the lid is securely fastened. When transporting the spring water home, the jugs can sometimes slide around the car. Secure them in place or wrap them with towels or something so they don’t crash into each other.
How you store your spring water is essential. It is not pasteurized like spring water from the store, so it will start growing algae if left in direct sunlight. This is good because it means it’s alive! If the water you drink can’t even support the most basic life forms, how do you think it will support your body? Store your water in a cool, dark place such as a dark corner, pantry or closet. The fridge is ideal if you have room. Some people prefer to filter their water through a Berkey filter before drinking, but if the spring is pure, it’s not necessary. We drink our spring water completely unfiltered.
How long the water stays good for depends on how cold a temperature it’s stored at. Spring water is best fresh. We personally do not prefer to drink spring water past 2 weeks old. However, we know other people that will drink it at a month old. It’s great to get in a rhythm where you know how long the water lasts you and put your collection day on the calendar in advance.
I believe that water is calling us to reconnect with her in the deepest way, to gather our own water. Just like our ancestors did. Our ancestors didn’t have fancy water machines. They also didn’t create villages or settle where there was no water. Water was revered as the center of the community and the nodal point around which life could spiral out and take root.
Here’s to restoring the sacred connection with the waters of life.
Written by Dakota Chanel. Water Priestess and Ceremonialist. DakotaChanel.com
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The Spring in Exeter, Exeter, NH
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Jordan
Christy
I was just here today (May-16-2021) with my Dad. The water is great and an awesome flow as always. My Gram is from Exeter, NH and used to come here when she was young, but she’s been drinking her own well’s water since adult, so she rarely comes here. My Dad now lives in Haverhill, MA with City Water. City Water is awful, so we come here to get our water.
We usually go late in the day, like late afternoon to early evenings. Most of the time, there are no lines or people because of that. We fill at least 7-10 5-Gallon jugs, so we can have it for the whole month as our primary drinking water. The only thing I can taste in it is salt. Although it’s smooth and fresh, it’s a bit salty to me.
I’m a frequent visitor 1-2X per month to this Spring.
Jordan
As of January 9, 2023, the water has stopped flowing. Construction work has started on Rose Farm for 40 units and 55+ community. I heard that they were not going to interfere with the public access to the spring but so far there is a possibility that might not be the case. I have notified the local conservancy group The West Side Neighborhood Coalition which is part of the Exeter Area Conservancy.
Water has not been flowing since 12//30/22 …. Not a drop for days…
Not sure what is going on?
Someone please post here when it is up and running again and I will do the same…Ty
Had tried to link the Towns Response , but no go… Basically they said , Private Property, Not our Responsibility….
Visited today, still Nada 1/7/23
NOT LOOKING GOOD FOLKS…
Just curious why someone would dislike my post, trying to be informative and helpful… Dislike away Karen…
I suffer from electrolyte issues and began drinking this water solely a months ago. Since then my labs have improved, so the mineral content must be good!!
Thank you for sharing this important information! I live near the spring and drink the spring water religiously. Exeter water has gone way down hill and I’m afraid to drink it because it tastes terrible now, compared to what it was 15 years ago, and I take a lot of medications. I’m just not sure what kind of chemicals is in the town water that could interfere with my meds.
We come from Mass. to get this water and have been for over a year. It is awesome. Sometimes there is a line to get it! We saw the Public Works Dept there one time and they say it is tested at least once/year. It’s delish!!
Spring is functioning better than ever!
Sample Date 5/23/2017
pH 7.4
TDS Est 267
EC 0.44
Cations 3.8
Anions 3.8
Sodium 62
Calcium 15
Magnesium 3
Potassium 4
Total Hardness 50
Nitrate 2.6 (SAFE)
Sulfur 6
CO3 < 1.0
HCO3 25
Chloride 100
Total Alkalinity 21
Total P < 0.01
Total Fe < 0.01
Curious to know what these results mean? I have a TDS meter and results on it are 180-/+
I am not a water expert but I wanted to test the mineral content so I could adjust as needed while home brewing beer.
As-is it’s a good mineral profile for brewing New England IPAs!
The water is saltier and has more minerals compared to regular tap or bottled water, anything 250+ ppm TDS counts as “mineral water”
I love it as a seltzer but have switched to Primo 5-gallon jugs for daily drinking water because of the detected PFBS, PFHXA, PFOA (see the Water Test Results section above for the full report) even though to my eye these levels are roughly the same as Exeter and Portsmouth ground water, they could be higher/lower depending on time of day/month/year and the spring won’t be tested daily.
Today is 4/1, unfortunately not an April Fools joke, the flow has been stopped for days and has been intermittent and slowed for weeks…..
Any change ? ?
Proposed development could threaten this spring, this group is opposed:
http://norosefarmdevelopment.weebly.com/
Visited the Spring in Exeter NH today (1/7/15) VERY cold New England day today however; there was still 3 cars waiting to fill up. Brought along my TDS meter: TDS = 131 Temp = 53 Degrees
This water is excellent and has a nice silky smooth finish. YUM! Best of all, this spring is only 35 minutes away from my home.
I have lived in Exeter for most my life and drank this water on and off growing up. Now it’s about 90% of my water intake. My wife and I usually fill up 15-25 gallons every trip depending on what we take with us. There is usually a line so we tend to go a little later, even after dark since its a little creepy and keeps most people away.
May 12, 2023, I went to the spring after three weeks of it being dry to finding it totally repaired and virtually gushing! So happy to have this repaired and flowing. Thank you for fixing it! God Bless You!
Ty for keeping people informed Shirley, much sppreciated…
No water flow Jan 1 2023-Jan 2, 2023…anyone know if it’s flowing yet?
Still nada, 1/3/23 1:00 pm
Water came back on after a couple of weeks. Still on as of 2.14.23
Water collected 5/12/2018
pH: 6.48
Conductivity: 449uS
TDS: 330 ppm
Salinity: 0.23 ppm
I have walked down to this spring many a time to refill all my bottles of water, and it is delicious!
I have never heard of, seen, or gotten sick myself from this water. It comes out clean, and they recently replaced the runoff spout!
I went here in January 2016 and it’s easy to find. It’s called the Jailhouse Spring on googlemaps. There was a lady there when I got there who said she had been drinking the water for 40 years. There were 3 more cars waiting by the time I collected 5 gallons. The water was good and alleviated the issues I have with Boston City Water. No charge, easy parking, I recommend.
What are people using to get the water into bottles? Would love to get some but want to be prepared.
We let it run right into our bottles and jugs.
No more than 5.0% samples total coliform-positive in a month.
(For water systems that collect fewer than 40 routine samples per month,
no more than one sample can be total coliform-positive per month.)
Every sample that has total coliform must be analyzed for either fecal
coliforms or E. coli if two consecutive TC-positive samples, and one is also positive for E.coli fecal coliforms, system has an acute MCL violation.
I worry about this water. We live in a place where you can see the spring and drink from it regularly. There is always a rust colored fluid leaching up from the ground around the spring and today when we were down there we saw a giant puddle as black as ink. It is downhill so everything from our neighborhood runs down and goes right into the spring. I wonder if annual testing should be replaced with say…… daily testing?
I just tried it for the first time today. There was one person ahead of me filing 5-10 one gallon bottles. I filled two five gallon jugs, and one smaller one. By the time I got those filled two more cars pulled up behind me. The water tastes great and I’m hoping that it will be overall better than my tap water that’s full of fluoride.
Privately Funded Lab
Analysis of Exeter Spring by Northeast Environmental Labs in Danvers, Ma by
Anthony Percoco (ap_peaceofhealth@yahoo.com)
Date of Report
1/31/2012
Alkalinity (as CaCO3)
22.3 mg/L (Accepted Range: 30-100)
Arsenic < 0.001 mg/L (Accepted 0.01 maximum)
Calcium 16.3 mg/L (Accepted Range 50-150)
Chloride 106 mg/L (Maximum Range 250)
Conductivity 410
Fluoride 0.05 mg/L (Maximum Range 2.0)
Hardness (as CaCO3)
52.3 mg/L
(250
maximum)
Iron 0.05 mg/L (Maximum Level 0.3)
Lead < 0.001 mg/L (Maximum Level 0.015)
Magnesium 2.84 mg/L –
Manganese < 0.01 mg/L (Maximum Level 0.05)
Nitrate 3.98 mg/L (Maximum Level 10)
Nitrite < 0.01 mg/L (Maximum Level 1.0)
Orthophosphate (as P)
< 0.1 mg/L
–
pH 5.98 (Range 6.5-8.5)
Potassium 5.3 mg/L
Sodium 61.6 mg/L (20 maximum)
Solids, Dissolved
(TDS) 245 mg/L (Max Level 500)
Sulfate 15.5 mg/L (Maximum Level 250)
Total Coliform,
Colilert, present /100ml
E. coli is absent in the
sample
** I would love to collaborate with anyone who has used this spring. There is coliform present in the test, and I would like to retest at a later date. Also, Sodium levels are high lowering the PH, thus I am wondering if salt run off is impacting the source. Any questions, feel free to email me at the above address. I hope this info helps.
Although it’s old, thank you for this!
I am concerned about he spring in exeter but would love to save money on bottled water.
I am not good at reading and deciphering the testing results. Have you retested it lately? Obviously I want the alkaline to be higher and less salt . What do you have concerns about? My daughter is pregnant and I surely do not want ot expose her to anything possibly harmful. What bottled water do you trust? Thank you ,Sally
You can do a DIY Filter (Berkey Copy) and filter down to 1 Micron, then boil it to be safe. After boiling…. Let it sit for 3 Days, to remove addition Gases and Radiation Decay. After that, you can drink it safely without worries.
We have been using this water for over a year now. We like it a lot. To be on the safe side, we are thinking about getting it tested. We have a call into the State. Any other thoughts about testing. Has any been done since your test in 2012?
This spring is easy to find, its about 50 yards from the intersection of Forest St. and Oak St. I filled a bottle but was too chicken to drink it before boiling it!
You can drink without boiling. I used to get it when living not to far and drank it for a couple years with never a problem. We recently moved from a home and had an artesian well with delicious water. We have moved to an apartment with city water and even after filtering with Brita can stil taste the chlorine, yuck! I’ll be going back to this spring again as my mother lives up the street.
Robin, Brita does not remove chlorine nor fluoride. Try Aquasana. They have great filters. I have the under the counter in the kitchen with the spout, You may need a plumber to install it and then going forward for filter replacement, you can do it yourself. Also have a shower filter to remove fluoride and chlorine, and my hair and skin feel great. The shower filter is really easy to assemble.
Just wanted to thank Shirley from Lee for the updates, very much appreciated….JIM
Is anyone having a hard time viewing the water test results? I keep uploading a blank document. Thanks!
I discovered this spring about 7 years ago and filled up my glass Carboys many times here. Best quality spring water I’ve ever tasted. Clean, pure, natural.
Wondering if the Spring has been tested since it stopped for bit back in January? Also, do you boil this water or drink straight from spigot? Tx!
I took samples on 6/20/2023 around 10AM and had them tested at Absolute Resource Associates in Portsmouth, NH.
The results should appear in the Water Test Results section above. Negative for bacteria, lead, arsenic, etc but over the limit for PFBS, PFHXA, PFOA
Feb-12-2023: The Spring is back running again and nice flow.
So I’ve been going there for a few years now but for the past week it has been either trickling or completely dry. Does anyone have any recent information?
Spring etiquette- if there is a line of cars, you just park behind and wait your turn. I thought they were for the houses next door but I was rudely told to wait in line.
Also bring a smaller container to fill the larger 5 gal jugs with. I had to find something to do that with.
Great spring. Glad it’s here. The old men also were telling me “there’s a line because it’s the best water in the state!“