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Saturday 27 May 1916 – Mother and child in a well

Category World War I: The Home Front
Publication
The Evesham Journal
Transcription of article

MOTHER AND CHILD IN A WELL

An extraordinary incident occurred at Badsey on Monday. Mrs Bott, wife of Mr Henry Bott, a market gardener’s labourer, was at work in some garden ground near Knowle Hill; she had with her her little child, a boy aged two years. The child was playing near a well on the ground; the well is eighteen feet deep, and there are nine feet of water in it. The covering of the well gave way, and the child fell into the water. The mother heard a splash, missed the child, and at once realised what had happened, and screamed for help, but nobody came. The covering of the well had fallen on top of the child, who was thus kept below the surface of the water. In desperation the mother herself jumped into the well, and luckily alighted on the cover in such a way that she tipped it aside, and the child’s head appeared. The mother caught hold of the child, and they were more or less supported by the floating cover. The mother shouted for help, but no one heard her, and so she attempted to climb up the sides of the well, by means of the joints in the brickwork, and after a hard struggle she got to the top and out on to the surface of the ground. The mother and child went to Mr Horsfield’s house at Knowle Hill, where they were attended to and given dry clothing, and we are glad to say that beyond a few bruises sustained to the mother neither is any the worse for the immersion in the well.