If ever a publican needed a drink to steady his nerves it was Richard Boyce, after almost falling to his death down a 60ft (18.2 metre) well.
Mr Boyce, owner of Ormondville's Settlers Arms, reckons he was lucky to escape with just bruises and a damaged knee after the floor of a historic shed behind the pub collapsed beneath him and he crashed into the brick-lined well.
"If I hadn't grabbed that old washing machine agitator I was a goner," he told the Dannevirke News.
The Settlers Arms opened on January 5, 1881 and the little shed that hides the well was the first such building in Ormondville. But Mr Boyce, who has been the publican for more than nine years, had no idea of the well's existence - until he found himself falling through the floor of the shed.
"I was stacking hay for my daughter's horse when the floor gave way and that was it," he said.