A couple was stunned to find a secret 200-year-old well underneath the hallway of their cottage when they began renovations.
Victoria Ellington, 36, and her husband, Andrew, 40, were amazed when they discovered the 27-foot hole by the front door.
Once explored, they found that the well, which is thought to be centuries-old, still contained crystal-clear water.
The couple, from Redcar, North Yorkshire, couldn’t bear to cover up the feature, so they decided to find a way to incorporate it into their interior decoration.
After months of hard work, they managed to install a pump to create their very own wishing well, covered by protective glass.
The couple now rent the beach-front property, called Bute Cottage, to holidaymakers who can enjoy the quirky water display.
“We bought the cottage during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown, and Andrew, who is a builder, started renovating it,“ Ms. Ellington, a mom of two, said. “We were planning to add an extension and build a family home, but the foundations started slipping, and we knew something was up.”
Her husband had found a hole and realized it was a deep well on top of the property, by the front door. He had been digging at the foundations but found all the soil kept falling into a hole.
“He just sent me a photo and said: ‘Oh my god, have you seen this?’” she said. “We knew then that we couldn’t build an extension, so Andrew just decided to make it part of the building, and we could rent the cottage out.”
Instead of paving over the well, the couple covered it with a glass walkway and lined the walls of the shaft with lights to display it prominently.
“Our sons were excited about having a wishing well, so we thought we should make that a reality,“ Ms. Ellington, mom to Oscar, 5, and Henry, 9, said. ”We’ve put lights down the walls of the well and the glass is toughened.”
They can now pump water into the well and have even installed a little slot for people to insert coins and make wishes.
“You can see right down to the bottom,“ she said. ”Andrew tried to measure a few times, and I think it is around 27 feet deep.”
The couple completed the renovations earlier in May and now, rent the two-bedroom cottage out for 629 pounds a week.
“The well makes it a bit different,” Ms. Ellington said. “When I saw it, I was totally blown away, and every time I see it I just totally love it.”
