The Chedworth Society

A SURVEY OF WELLS IN CHEDWORTH

The Well at Badger Cottage
And the Collett family.

This is a good example of how, when one starts to research a historical subject, facts sometimes tumble out from unexpected sources. It also goes some way to explain how the researcher can be drawn into more and more investigation to the detriment of his timetable!

In 2003 David Woods the then new owner of Badger Cottage was working on his front garden, when a walker stopped to talk.

The walker, a John Collett now living in Boston Lincolnshire, turned out to be a relative of the Collett family who lived in the cottage in the early to mid 1900’s.Moreover this John Collett sent David some photographs of the then Uncle John Collett and the five Collett sisters from that period. The photographs also showed Rhoda and Sarah Collett, two of the five sisters, drawing water from a well.
Even more remarkably when David turned his attention to the rear garden not only did he discover the well in the undergrowth, but also remnants of the windlass, chain and bucket shown in the photograph.

Uncle John Collett, Cordwainer (leather worker) and the five sisters in 1939 taken at the cottage. 

  
Uncle John Collett in gardening mode in 1936.


Rhoda and Sarah Collett at the well.