Watch: Homeowners found a 200-year-old well under the floorboards while renovating their house

The homeowners were shocked to find the 27ft hole by the front door - and amazed that it still contained crystal-clear water! Victoria Ellington, 36, and her husband Andrew, 40, couldn’t bear to cover up the 200-year-old well - so they turned it into a stunning hallway feature. After months of hard work, Victoria and Andrew managed to install a pump to create their very own wishing well, with decorative lights and covered by protective glass.

Andrew, a builder, had begun renovating the cottage, shortly after buying it in 2020. He sensed something wasn’t quite right when the foundations started slipping. Mum-of-two Victoria said: “He was digging at the foundations and all the soil was falling into this hole. He just sent me a photo and said: 'Oh my god, have you seen this?' 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. The couple, from Redcar, North Yorks., now rent the beach-front property, called Bute Cottage, to holidaymakers who can enjoy the quirky water feature.

“We can pump water into the well and we’ve got a little slot for people to make wishes. You can see right down to the bottom. Andrew tried to measure a few times and I think it is around 27ft deep.” The couple completed the renovation earlier this month and now rent the two-bedroom cottage out for £629-a-week.