In a different thread ("deep well hand pump"), LesSnyder said:
"...a 3/4" foot valve attached to a short section of pipe (for weight) coupled to a length of 5/8" garden hose could probably be dropped down a shallow well casing, raised and lowered a couple of feet at a time, and be used to pump non potable water that could be treated..."

Based on hands-on experience, there's a practical nugget in this. So here's my 2¢ (in a more searchable thread).

Background: In many shallow well systems, an impeller pump or vacuum hand pump is installed at the surface. A foot valve is a one-way valve that is often installed at the bottom of the pipe that goes down into the well. The foot valve stops the pipe from emptying after pumping stops. This prevents wasted energy (and a great deal of cursing) when trying get the pump going again (priming).

This all works fine, until a bit of sand, coal, or other debris gets into the valve, causing the pipe to slowly drain. The options are to either a) fill the entire pump and pipe through the tiny 1/4" priming hole, accompanied by cursing, or b) vigorously stroke the vertical pipe up and down, which pumps enough water up the pipe to prime the pump, accompanied by the smirk of cleverness.

So, based on hands-on experience, you can actually pump a useful amount of water with nothing more than a pipe and a foot valve.

The practical problem with the garden hose idea is this: the pipe used in well systems is rigid (metal) or semi-rigid (potable-water-rated ABS). The rigidity is important, because it takes a vigorous "down-stroke" to cause the foot valve to open, forcing water in and up the pipe. It's not like a siphon setup, where a small amount of easy jiggling gets the flow going. You need to overcome the weight of water inside the pipe, and sometimes (depending on the design) a fairly stiff "hold-closed" spring.

Hope this long-winded blather makes some kind of sense (it's late).