The Well House pictured in July 2005.

The small building standing in the centre of the site is known as the Well House and was sometimes called the Gazebo. The Well House was built by 1920 under the instruction of Frank Cullen, the owner of the site from 1912 to 1971. It is an architect designed timber-framed building complementing the form and materials of the Great Barns with a hipped, plain-tile roof with glazed gablet ends and brick-nogging infilled panels.

A water lift pump was installed in the Well House which still remains and a service platform put down the well at about 25 feet depth. A network of pipes fed the farmhouse, the farm buildings and the two outlying cottages by the roadside. An old fashioned slate electrical panel held the instruments used to charge battery accumulators to light the house.

Later in his life, Frank Cullen became wheelchair bound and he had the Well House converted to a Gazebo. The door was altered to a stable type and a thin wall was put in to close off the pumphead. The building was panelled inside with hardboard and Mr Cullen used it as a vantage point to survey his farm.

The Gazebo was used as a finds processing room and storehouse by the Cressing Temple Archaeological Unit between 1991 and 1997. After that it has been used as a temporary Box Office for the Theatre and a store for the gardener.

The well is now opened for the first time for public viewing and is lit by a 500 watt floodlight operated by an infra-red trip switch to conserve energy. The Well House contains an exhibition having three themes; the well itself, the seed industry in Essex and the evolution of the garden. Also there are racks of tools showing the evolution of mattocks and hoes and there is a potting table to show off the many seed crops once produced on the farm. There are two lit display cases of hand tools, keys and other paraphenalia. There are other items of interest including a wind driven bird scarer and a fragment of shrapnel from a WW2 bomb that fell on the farm.

The Well

Looking down the well with the aid of 500 watts.

The well itself is beautifully constructed of ashlar masonry, probably from Reigate and is approximately 45 feet to the water level. It clearly dates to the Templar period and so, along with the Great Barns, is the only other visible feature of that period which survives on the Scheduled Monument.

Looking up the well from 25 feet down.

At about 25 feet there is a wooden cover upon which a modern electric lift pump sits. The original cover was removed in 1990 and it is kept here in the Well House. It shows how wide the well is and it has a hole cut in for the old pipe which connected to the pump.

The bricked-up doorway leads to a mystery?

In the side of the well is a hole shaped like a doorway which has been bricked up with white gault bricks. There are many stories associated with this door. One is that it is a priesthole for hiding catholic priests in during the Civil War and another is that is part of a long escape tunnel to Hungry Hall nearly half a mile away.

The most likely reason for it however can be seen on the old Ordnance Survey maps. At some time between 1875 and 1897 the well was capped over with a brick dome and a pump was installed near the farmhouse. The pipe must have run across the drive and into the well through this doorway. Later when the Well House was built the hole was bricked up.

The pump lifted water up to fill two huge tanks up in the top of the garages. This water then ran through iron pipes all over the farm to supply the farmhouse, the barns, the garden, the stockyard and the stables. It also supplied water to the cottages on the main road. The water was being still being used on the farm until 1990 after which a mains supply was connected to the farm.

The Well House in context with the Farmhouse.