A UK couple who were renovating their ancient house found a secret 10-foot-deep well in the middle of their living room.
The first-time home buyers were lifting the floorboards of their Edwardian abode as part of renovations when they made the shocking discovery.
They stumbled on a ring of bricks with a deep pit in the center in front of their bay window.
Local archives revealed their two-bedroom terraced home sits on the site of a former farm, in Coventry, West Midlands.
Shaniah, 28, a postwoman, and Ross, 25, an electrician, intend to make a feature out of the well—adding a glass top and lights inside.
Ross climbed down and says the bottom is wet clay—he reckons if they dug it out, it would reach water and be a functioning well.
“We couldn’t believe it,” Shaniah said. "I’m half really excited and half terrified.
“Ross just thinks it’s great.
“I’ve watched ‘The Ring,’ though, and ‘Silence of the Lambs,’ so I’m a bit freaked out by it as well as excited.”
Shaniah and Ross bought the house for 192,000 pounds ($371,000) in November 2023.
The property hasn’t been updated since at least the 1960s, and they took it on as a renovation project.
The couple had to take up the living room floorboards to have the boiler replaced and found the well on March 10.
They’ve kept it covered for now as 6-year-old pet pooch Bruce is curious about the discovery.
“We'd had such a busy day and at 10 p.m., we remembered the plumbers were coming, and we needed to take up the floorboards by morning,” Shaniah said.
“Ross went to do it, and he just started shouting and shouting.
“He just saw a perfect circle of bricks and then total darkness so shone his head torch down.
“He jumped in looking for treasure, and I just thought, ‘He’s crazy.’ We couldn’t sleep, it was so exciting.”
According to Shaniah, a large fabric dyeing industry once operated in this area, and she wondered if the well somehow had anything to do with that.
“But it’s too deep for that, and we did some research and discovered our house is built on an old farm where there was a well, so we’re sure that’s what it is,” she said.
“It’s a piece of Coventry history, and the whole community is excited about it.
“We’re a bit apprehensive because we’re first-time buyers.
“If anyone has advice they can give about turning it into a feature, we'd be glad to hear it—renovation is hard enough already.”
