EDO1377 - Tourist Information Centre, Bell Street, Shaftesbury; salvage recording

In 1998 Foote and Bicknell Building Contractors Ltd from Bruton, Somerset were engaged by North Dorset District Council to construct an extension to the Tourist Information Centre in Bell Street. Work commenced on 2 February 1998. When the foundation trenches were being dug what appeared to be a manhole cover was exposed at approximately 600mm below the existing external paving level. Further investigations revealed a circular opening, 640mm in diameter, which proved to be the top of a deeper pit, approximately 2 metres in diameter and approximately 4.2 metres deep. Tony and Brenda Innes of the Shaftesbury Historical Society visited the site and interpreted it as a dry well; these are fairly common in the town and were probably connected to a public house on this or an adjacent site. Before the well was filled, the top was dismantled down to the 'shoulder' to enable more detailed inspection. It proved to be constructed of solid brickwork 225mm thick and rendered internally.