Couple discover 33ft-deep well - under their sofa!

A couple were left stunned after finding a 33ft well - under their sofa.

Colin Steer, and wife Vanessa, both 61, who have lived in their Victorian home for 24 years first discovered a slight indentation in their living room floor after they moved in.

But Vanessa told her husband to simply cover up the 1ft-deep hole as much as possible as they had three young children in the house.

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However since retiring last October, Colin began to decorate the living room and dig deeper - finding the huge hole was bigger than he had thought.

He spent three days clearing the well, which is around 30inches wide, using a bucket on a rope to pull up the debris.

The former civil servant from Plymouth, Devon, said: "I was replacing the joists in the floor when I noticed a slight depression - it appeared to be filled in with the foundations of the house.

"I dug down about one foot and saw that it was a well, but my wife just wanted to me to cover it back up because we had three children running around at the time.

"I always wanted to dig it out to see if I could find a pot of gold at the bottom, so when I retired at the end of last year that's what I did.

"I was quite surprised really, I would have preferred it to be in the garden where I could have got at it a little easier."

The father-of-three said that he is unsure at how far the well dates back as he has now hit around 3ft of water and since re-decorating he "doesn't want to dirty the new carpet".

He has since built a trap-door into the living room floor for easy access to the well - in which he found an old sword.

Colin said: "When my wife wanted the room decorated I said 'Right, I will decorate it but I am going to dig out the well this time'.

"I found a sword at around 5ft down but I haven't managed to get anything else yet - everything I have dug out has been infill which was probably tipped in when the house was built.

"I haven't got to the bottom yet - I haven't got any fresh stuff apart from the sword which I am assuming was hid in the wall.

"I believe it goes down about 33ft as there is a well at the Mormon church just up the road which is 33ft too.

"I am so interested in it because I just want to know what was here before, there was such a lot of work that has gone into it."

However, Colin's wife is not as enthusiastic as him.

Vanessa said: "I hate the well. But I suppose it is quite a feature. When we come to sell the house I just hope it's not a white elephant in the room."

This isn't the only discovery Mr Steer has made at home.

Last week he was digging out the garden when he found two unexploded German bombs in his garden, prompting him to call the army in.

He said: "The bomb squad came round and sorted it out but I was quite shocked to find that too.

"I'm just wondering what is next now."

Vanessa added: "I only went out to get my nails done and I came back to chaos - four police cars and two bomb disposal trucks."

Lieutenant Ross Balfour, from the disposal team, said: "We found two German incendiary devices, like a bomb.

"We wouldn't encourage the public to pick up anything suspicious like this. The devices still have phosphorus in which burns brightly and is extremely hot.

"They would be very dangerous to handle."