For the last 45 years, Kevin Mort and his wife have lived in a house where the kitchen floor becomes a skating rink in the winter, and the mystery of their frigid floor remained unsolved for decades.
But a recent kitchen reno project—to install heated floors in said kitchen—led to a discovery of historic and cavernous “depth,” and finally explained the reason for the coldness.
Mr. Mort, 50, a retired plumber from Cheshire, England, and his wife are now empty-nesters who bought the house that was owned by Mrs. Mort’s parents (who now live next door). As the home was built long ago, Mr. Mort has done his fair share of research on its history.
“The earliest that we can go back is 1756, where it was a pub,” Mr. Mort told The Epoch Times. The house, as best they know, was long ago grouped with the house next door into a tavern and inn and also included a stable for horses.
That was its first function, he said, until 1926 when it became a post office before being converted into a house in the 1960s. Then they bought the house. Recently, they dug up more of that history than they had intended.
Shoveling into the dirt below the floor, they hit brick.
“We discovered this wet patch and a ring of bricks,“ he said. ”And, you know, hell broke loose, shall we say.”
The retired plumber was confident in his ability to assess the situation, but his daughter, who had come around to visit, suggested he film whatever the discovery was and put it on social media. He recorded as they uncovered what looked like an ancient well beneath the house and soon had the discovery beamed out across the internet.
Not expecting much of a response outside of family and friends, they nevertheless watched as the video “blew up” online with an overwhelming number of reactions.
Mr. Mort said that many shared their opinions on what should be done, such as covering the well back up, but armed with plumbing skills and deep curiosity, he plunged deep into whatever the well had in store.
After pumping the well out, he took a metal detector into its bowels and discovered what he says are old wine and brandy bottles, long lost.
With these discoveries, they had to hurry past their excavation fun, as the kitchen was badly needed by the family and unusable while under construction. With a houseful of kids at the time, Mr. Mort says the house was turned upside-down without a kitchen.
In total, the well dropped down 17 feet. In the end, they decided not to simply floor over it, let alone fill in the cavity to expunge the cold, but rather, they added a glass cover with lights to highlight the rustic and rather charming ancient well.
Mr. Mort performed the work on the well himself but hired a company to install the decorative glass cover for his newfound kitchen feature.
The glass is thick and has become their dog’s favorite spot to curl up during warm summer days. Mr. Mort says he can “guarantee” that he will see one of his dogs lying there in the kitchen on any given balmy day.
Though the family is quite pleased with the new decoration, he says many among their new following of 650,000 on the internet thought he should be worried with the well in the house, noting the stark similarities it has with the horror film “The Ring.”
“If I had a dollar every time someone said that, I'd be very rich,” Mr. Mort said.
Though grateful to be able to preserve this 300-year-old piece of history and enjoy it every day, he says he has no intention of watching the horror film anytime soon.
