A ten foot deep well appears in the lawn in the back garden of Gary and Julia Barber's home in Princethorpe Road, Ipswich; Three year old grandaughter Grace Talbot examines the 10 foot deep well

Grandfather Gary Barber is still scratching his head today after a huge hole was discovered in the middle of his back garden lawn.

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The 64-year-old, of Princethorpe Road, Ipswich, first noticed the chasm – which is 10ft deep and 3ft wide – last week.

Mr Barber admitted he was completely stunned by the discovery – having been mowing the area of grass where the hole now stands – just days previously.

The hole has since filled up with rainwater and Mr Barber now plans to construct an ornamental brick well above it.

He said: “I looked out of the window and thought that I could see a pile of dirt on the garden lawn. I wandered out there and to my astonishment found this enormous hole right in the middle of the lawn.

“At that stage it was already filling with water but it looked to be around 10ft deep and I’d guess it’s three or four feet wide.

“I have absolutely no idea what caused it. I know we’ve had a fair amount of rain recently but I’d have thought it would take something more than just that.

“I’ve looked at the deeds of the house right back to when it was built in 1932 and there’s no mention of anything like this happening before. It’s extremely bizarre.”

Mr Barber, a grandfather of two and father of two, has lived in the property with wife Julia for ten years.

He added: “We’ve never had anything go wrong with the house. I told one of my friends who works as a builder about what had happened. He said the safest thing would be to build brickwork around the hole and turn it into an ornamental well.

“I thought about telling the council but the hole isn’t causing us any problems so we might as well turn it into something nice.”