MYSTERY OF A WELL.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 January 1926, Page 2

MYSTERY OF A WELL.

-BANK OF NEW SOUTH WALES SITE. UNCOVERED BY EXCAVATORS. For whom, by whom and when was constructed a bricked-in well, which has been uncovered by the excavation on the Bank of New South Wales’ site ai the corner of Devon and Currie Streets, New Plymouth? Old inhabitants of New Plymouth, from whom a Daily News reporter sought information yesterday, are able to throw but little light on the subject. The well which has been filled in, is 10 to 12 feet in diameter and is in the south-eastern corner of the section. The original brickwork is revealed about eight feet below the surface, from which point newer brickwork converges towards the top, which is sealed with concrete. The well has been filled with earth and boulders, but water is now oozing, from it into the excavation for the foundations of the new bank premises. Mr. Richard Cock was the only one of a number of early New Plymouth citizens, who could remember anything about the well. He said that when he was a boy Mr. J. C. Sharland, who later removed to Auckland, bad a chemist’s shop on the site and drew water from the well for bottle washing purposes. Mt. Cock also remembered that when the shop was burned a warning was issued to the curious to be careful of the open well mouth, and that the well was filled in soon afterwards. Mr. Cock could not say who built the well or when or for whom it was excavated. There were a number of wells in the town in those days. The discoverey of the well came as a surprise to other long residents of the town. Mr. H. R. Cattley said that the site was excavated from a hill-side, and that in the early days, when he was a boy, it was used as a shooting gallery stand and for other pleasure devices of a like nature. Like Messrs. Colson, of Pendarves Street, and O. W. Sole, Mr. Cattley could recall other wells in the neighbourhood but not this one. Colonel Eilis and Mr. N. K. McDiarmid, who are also well acquainted with early Devon Street could not remember the well. They stated that for as long as they could remember there was always a building on the section. Since the banking premises recently demolished had been on the site for forty years, it is considered certain that the well has been filled in for over that period.