This is the well that a 39-year-old woman fell down last April while taking part in an open house event at a property in Malmesbury, Wiltshire.

The agent which conducted the viewing, Strakers, was fined £200,000 last week by Swindon Magistrates Court after the woman, Lucy Driver, stepped onto a wooden board covering the well, which then gave way.

During the case, which was brought by the Health and Safety Executive, the court heard that the agent, which has a branch in the town, had been warned about the well being unsafe during a previous viewing.

Strakers’ managing director Anthony Bulley told the BBC that directors and staff had been ‘deeply distressed’ by the incident, and that the company had “carried out extensive internal investigations and have fully cooperated with the Health and Safety Executive throughout culminating in a plea of guilty at the earliest opportunity presented,” he said.

Mrs Driver had to be rescued by firemen after falling 30 feet down the well and suffering head injuries, ‘whole body whiplash’ and later Post-traumatic Stress Disorder after spending more than an hour at the bottom of the well in water while awaiting rescue. During the incident, a neighbour used a hosepipe to help Mrs Driver stay afloat in the well.

One significant factor in the case that emerged during evidence given during the case was that are the difficulties for agents conducting viewings at probate sales.

The HSE investigation concluded that Strakers did not have a health and safety management system in place for probate properties; the Malmsbury property was part of an estate of a woman who had died and therefore there was no one to ask about possible site risks, the HSE discovered.

The house (pictured) which is in the centre of Malmsbury on its historic ‘triangle’ intersection, went on to be sold at auction at the company’s Corn Exchange sale rooms in Devizes for £160,000, £10,000 more than its asking price.