Couple find secret 10ft well hidden beneath their living room floor

A couple have found a secret hidden 10ft deep well in middle of their living room (Picture: SWNS)

A couple of first-time-buyers were shocked to find a secret 10ft well hidden in the middle of their living room.

Shaniah Lloyd, 28, and partner Ross Bennett, 25, were renovating their new Edwardian home when they peeled back the floorboards to find a ring of bricks with a deep pit in the middle in front of the bay window.

After some initial trepidation, Ross climbed inside and said the bottom is wet clay – and reckons if they dug it out it would reach water and be a functioning well.

Local archives later revealed their two-bed terraced home sits on the site of a former farm, in Coventry, West Midlands.

First time buyers Ross Bennett and Shaniah Lloyd found the well while renovating their Edwardian home (Picture: SWNS)

Shaniah, a postwoman, and Ross, an electrician, now intend to turn the well into a feature, and add a glass top and lights inside.

‘We couldn’t believe it,’ said Shaniah. 

‘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 around £192,000 in November, with the aim of taking it on as a renovation project.

The property hasn’t been updated since at least the 1960s, and the couple found the well when they upended the living room floorboards in order to have the boiler replaced.

But despite their grand intentions for the well, the couple have been forced to seal it off for now as six-year-old pet pooch Bruce has become curious about the discovery.

Ross Bennett explores the well he found in the middle of his living room (Picture: SWNS)

The couple plan on eventually turning the well into a feature (Picture: SWNS)

Shaniah said: ‘We’d had such a busy day and at 10pm we remembered the plumbers were coming and we needed to take up the floorboards by morning.

‘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.’

Shaniah added: ‘There was a massive [fabric] dyeing industry in this area and I wondered at first if it was something 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.

‘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.’

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