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Of course, the murky surface was covered by a grate, so she couldn’t exactly jump in. But in the bright light of day, she could see the glitter of coins sparkling on the bottom, which, of course, Ambrose claimed didn’t exist.

She wandered around for a while until she came to a house with a little vegetable garden. She knocked on the door, gave the elderly resident her best smile, and asked if it would be possible to borrow a couple of gardening poles.

The old lady was delighted to help.

Armed with a pair of long bamboo poles, Kelly headed back to the well.

When she arrived, she poked one through the grate and prodded at the bottom. While, of course, she couldn’t tell whether it was false or not, it felt pretty solid, and her poking around only managed to stir up a little dirt from below.

One corner, however, appeared to have something of a lip. Perhaps it was the deepest section, where goldfish could hide.

When she pushed the bamboo pole down, it kept on going.

Deeper.

And deeper.

And deeper.

A little confused, she pulled the pole back out. Then, using some string she had in her rucksack, she tied the two poles together.

With a total pole length now of about twelve feet, she pushed it back into the water, aiming for the deeper section.

At first, it went in smoothly, then it got stuck on something.

Feeling a little smug that she’d found the bottom of the Bottomless Well, she gave the pole a light jerk, just to confirm.

Only for it to come loose and slide deeper.

Frowning now, she prodded around until she thought she had found the bottom again, but once more, what she had initially taken for the bottom appeared to be just a small ledge, perhaps in the stonework around the side of the well.

Again she poked and prodded.

And again the pole slid a little deeper.

By now, she was running out of pole, and the section in the water was almost completely submerged. If she pushed much further, she would need another pole.

Even as she reminded herself that it was impossible for the well to be truly bottomless, it certainly seemed to have a surprisingly deep section.

At least now she understood why there was a grate.

Figuring she might as well go as far as she could, she leaned out across the grate, then she prodded the pole down even deeper.

The entire front pole was now submerged beneath the water, with the second pole now halfway under as well. She had reached at least ten feet below the visible bottom, so she tried to shift forwards a little more.

Then something under the water gave the pole a sudden jerk.

She pulled it back sharply, but now there was only one pole left. The front pole had completely vanished, with only a couple of frayed pieces of string remaining to show that it had ever been there at all.

Concerned that she would no longer be able to return the second pole, she poked around for a while, hoping to dislodge where it had to be stuck and bring it back to the surface. After all, bamboo was a kind of wood, so it should just float, shouldn’t it? However, as she poked and prodded without so much as touching it at all, she began to doubt herself. What if there was some truth to the rumour? While she refused to believe, even for a second, that a well could be bottomless, she couldn’t rule out the possibility that it was much deeper than she had first realised.

Feeling a little sheepish that she’d lost the pole, she took the one she still had back to the house where she had borrowed it and knocked rather tentatively on the door. The old lady who had lent her the poles answered with a gap-toothed grin.

‘Hello, dear. Back again so soon? You be needing anything else?’

‘I’m very sorry,’ Kelly said, ‘but I’ve lost one of your poles.’

‘Oh,’ the old lady said. ‘That is a shame, but I’ve got plenty of them, so not to worry. Would you like to borrow some more?’