THE map on the deeds to 400-year old Moat House in Wattisfield, Suffolk, features a tiny italicised w, small enough that Olivia Munro and her husband, Jack, missed it when they purchased the property in May 2023. It was only when they began digging trenches in the garden to manage tree roots that a concrete pad revealed itself beneath the scuffed grass. After some determined drilling and with the aid of a powerful torch, they learnt that they were in possession of a 4ft-wide well.
It was the latest surprise in the renovation of a dilapidated property documented by Mrs Munro on her Instagram page, @lifeat moathouse. ‘It’s really bizarre, because we had no idea that there was this 70ft hole beneath where the children were playing,’ she remembers, clearly still shocked.
Wells get a mixed reception from modernday owners. Whereas some people fill them in or lock them away in an outbuilding, others welcome the additional source of water or make a charming feature of them. As for the Munros, the discovery initially unsettled the couple, who, having watched the 2002 horror film The Ring in their youth, associated wells with disturbing happenings. ‘We slept with the light on for a week,’ Mrs Munro confides. In time, however, they saw it as a positive development —particularly when a jam jar sent down the well emerged with crystal-clear water. They have since acquired reclaimed bricks to build the well up and make it a focal point and are planning to get the water tested, in the hope that it can be used on the garden and as drinking water for their dogs and ponies.
Before the Public Health Act of 1848 expanded the supply of mains water, any sizeable property was served by a well. Fordham Abbey, a Georgian mansion in nearby Cambridgeshire, where Mrs Munro is the assistant manager, is home to at least four, she says.
Denne historien er fra September 11, 2024-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra September 11, 2024-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Tales as old as time
By appointing writers-in-residence to landscape locations, the National Trust is hoping to spark in us a new engagement with our ancient surroundings, finds Richard Smyth
Do the active farmer test
Farming is a profession, not a lifestyle choice’ and, therefore, the Budget is unfair
Night Thoughts by Howard Hodgkin
Charlotte Mullins comments on Moght Thoughts
SOS: save our wild salmon
Jane Wheatley examines the dire situation facing the king of fish
Into the deep
Beneath the crystal-clear, alien world of water lie the great piscean survivors of the Ice Age. The Lake District is a fish-spotter's paradise, reports John Lewis-Stempel
It's alive!
Living, burping and bubbling fermented masses of flour, yeast and water that spawn countless loaves—Emma Hughes charts the rise and rise) of sourdough starters
There's orange gold in them thar fields
A kitchen staple that is easily taken for granted, the carrot is actually an incredibly tricky customer to cultivate that could reduce a grown man to tears, says Sarah Todd
True blues
I HAVE been planting English bluebells. They grow in their millions in the beechwoods that surround us—but not in our own garden. They are, however, a protected species. The law is clear and uncompromising: ‘It is illegal to dig up bluebells or their bulbs from the wild, or to trade or sell wild bluebell bulbs and seeds.’ I have, therefore, had to buy them from a respectable bulb-merchant.
Oh so hip
Stay the hand that itches to deadhead spent roses and you can enjoy their glittering fruits instead, writes John Hoyland
A best kept secret
Oft-forgotten Rutland, England's smallest county, is a 'Notswold' haven deserving of more attention, finds Nicola Venning
