Mystery as well in town runs dry

Baffled residents of a Shropshire town are trying to solve the mystery of a well that has run dry.

The well in Cleobury Mortimer, known locally as The Wells, was once the town's only source of water, but in recent weeks it has dried up despite heavy rainfall.

Resident Jim Reynolds said: "The water disappeared a few weeks ago and it is a complete mystery.

"The centuries-old well, which is fed from a local spring, thrived even during the summer-long great drought of 1976, when reservoirs dried up and there was endless heat.

"Elderly people also remember when a circus passed through the town and elephants drank from the well's fast-flowing water supply."

But local civil engineering expert Dr Mark Baldwin said that excavation work at the site of the town's business resource centre could have changed the well's water flow.