A Worcestershire woman has described the terrifying moment she plunged towards the bottom of a well in her garden, knowing that would not be able to swim to stay afloat.

Denise Brooks, aged 65, of Abbots Morton, has never learned to swim and was trying to free a water pump in the well to fill her duck pond when she slipped.

Mrs Brooks admitted she feared the worst when she lost her footing and plummeted towards the bottom of the pitch- black well.

She said: "It happened so quick. One minute I remember seeing the wall of the well and the next minute I'm just plunging into the water.

"That was the most frightening part and it must only have been a few seconds.

"It was frightening being in the water, knowing you can't swim, and thinking are you going to come back up again?"

Mrs Brooks and her husband Mike, aged 63, had been pumping water out of the well in their garden and into the pond because the water level had dropped and they wanted their ducks to be able to get onto a ramp in the pond safely.

It was when they were trying to pull the pump back up out of the well that it got stuck and Mrs Brooks decided to go down into the well untangle it, like she had done on numerous occasions before.

She said: "My husband put a piece of wood across the top of the well with the ladders that he'd tied together going down into the well.

"I went down the ladders right onto the bottom rung and the first piece of wood that I'd took in wouldn't reach the pump, it was too low down, so I managed to go back up and Mike passed me the loppers which are about 10ft long.

"So I then put my foot on the bottom rung of the ladder and my right foot on the wall of the well and was pushing and banging on the pump to try to release it and it was obvious I wasn't going to do it, but as I went for my last go at trying to release it the loppers slipped off the pump, went round the back and slid down the wall with me following it.

"It was a real shock and very frightening when I hit the water as I was completely submerged. I can't swim but managed to grab on to the rope to keep myself afloat.