Ipswich UAD child record record IPS 1238 - Well 0003

This well, east of wall 0017, was constructed in a 1.5m wide pit (0253). The shaft had been sunk to a depth of -0.56m OD and the lower 1m had a timber lining (0379). There were three horizontal layers of willow planking (0468-0479, 0483, 0485-0486), arranged to form a pentagonal shaft. The planks, c.30cm wide, had been mortised together and nailed into vertical posts behind (0480-0482, 0484).
A collar (0373), comprising five pieces of shaped planking (0407, 0463, 0464, 0465, 0466), rested on the five corners of the planked lining , acting as the foundation for the 20cm thick flint, septaria and tile lining (0148) of the upper shaft.
The base of the shaft had been deliberately filled, during construction, with a layer of chalk lumps (0376), presumably been deposited to "sweeten" the water as it rose up from below.
Below the chalk lumps, in the base layer (0375), a penny of Elizabeth I suggests a late16th century construction date and the pottery in its backfill suggests that it been abandoned by 1600, (S1).