For 25 years, Colin and Vanessa Steer were bewildered by a sunken portion of the floor under the couch in their Plymouth, England, home. At one point, Colin dug about a foot under the floor, but Vanessa stopped him from going farther. While Colin wanted to get to the bottom of the strange dip in the floor, Vanessa was more concerned about the safety of their three children. After Colin retired and the kids were out of the house, he went back to digging and uncovered a 30-inch-wide, 33-foot-deep medieval well under the floor that the site plans indicated could date back to the 16th century. Hidden deep inside was a sword, which Colin grabbed while he was excavating the well. The sword, hidden at a 45-degree angle, fell out of a bucket he was using to bring up dirt and debris. “It looked like an old peasant’s fighting weapon because it appeared to be made up of bits of metal all knocked together,” explained Colin. He did some research into the history of his land and discovered that the area was just woodlands before his house was built in 1895. Colin, now 70, continues to dig the well, recently finding a ring and a coin from 1725. He hopes to eventually extend the walls of the well up into his living room to create a future coffee table. The hole is currently 17 feet deep, and there’s about another 4-5 feet that he wants to dig out. Because there's still four feet of water at the bottom of the well, the couple keeps the well covered by a sheet of plastic and a trap door.
