The Excavation of the Old Vicarage Well
Within the perimeter of the Iron Age Enclosure in the
garden of the Old Vicarage is a well of indeterminate age, which, it
was hoped, might reveal all sorts of interesting objects dropped down
there over the centuries.
Marple's Active Volunteer Initiative Squad (MAVIS) kindly rose to the challenge offered by Ann during the summer of 2001, to excavate the silt and debris from the bottom of the well at Mellor and bring it to the surface so that the archaeologists could sift through it.
The Mellor well is a rectangular shaft of approximately 4' x 6' and around 20' deep cut through solid rock. There are drill marks on the walls which are presumably relatively modern but these could have been made during widening of the shaft, rather than when it was first constructed. It is possible that the well was originally just a natural fissure in the rock.
At the top of the well is a chamber
lined with stone with steps descending to a large slab approximately 5' below
ground level. This slab covers the shaft except at the bottom of the steps,
where it has a narrow curving slot just wide enough for a bucket to pass down or
a man to squeeze through. The steps and the whole of the well are now covered by
stone slabs to prevent people or livestock from falling down it.
When the large stone slabs covering the well
entrance were removed the task appeared rather more daunting than the
team had anticipated. Instead of water and several inches of silt as
had been expected, it appeared that a entire dry stone wall had been
dropped down the well and all that could be seen was a huge pile of
rocks about twenty feet down.
Fortunately at this point the "muscle" arrived in the form
of Jon Bintliff, Jeff Boland and Rob Gall, all full time Firefighters at Marple
Fire Station and made fairly short work of removing the first layer of rocks
using a rope and bucket.
The water was exposed after the first foot of rocks were
removed and before much longer it was creeping towards the tops of
their wellies. At that point the first of almost a bucket full of
live World War II ammunition started to appear. There were two
different types, most appeared to match the sub-machine gun found years
earlier but there were also some larger calibre rounds that were
similar to those used in Officer's pistols during the First World War.
Bucket after bucket of rocks, silt
and bullets kept the archaeologists busy. By lunchtime the team were bent double with water
to their armpits. The number of bullets were making the archaeologists slightly
nervous, although not as nervous as the large frog discovered down the well
was making Rob Gall.Ann contacted the local Police to enquire about disposing of the large bucket of live ammunition safely. Initially they were a little perplexed but eventually agreed. News of the Thompson Sub-machine gun was less well received, however and within 10 minutes three Police Land Rovers and six policemen (including a Tactical Armed Response Unit!) had descended on the Old Vicarage. Fortunately after examining the gun, which is so rusty there is no risk of it ever being fired again, the Officers allowed Ann to keep it. Can archaeology get more exciting than this?
