About two years ago blog reader Lynn sent me some photo's of Irene Soper's former home. At the time the property had been recently sold and a planning application for building work could be seen.
Recently I wondered what the situation would be like now, so Lynn kindly offered to take some pictures again.
I was very interested and intrigued to find that, while Rose Cottage seems to have been restored, the Well House (as far as I can tell from the photo) seems to be untouched and unoccupied. I wonder why that might be?
Lynn also took some photo's of the surroundings, explaining that both dwellings overlook the lovely New Forest countryside. The next image was taken when walking just a few steps down the lane from the cottage looking towards Hampton Ridge, which is also shown in the third, more close-up photo.
She also made photo's of the old well, just a few steps down from The Well House, on the opposite side of the lane. As you can see from the middle image, the well was first recorded in 1215. It has one well opening for humans and one for animals. The open side of the well is likely still regularly used by the commoners' animals that freely roam, i.e. the cattle, ponies, donkeys etc.
Thank you Lynn, and if anybody has further information regarding both Rose Cottage and Well House I would love to hear from you!
