The Whish Fountain

I'm in Cheltenham for a mini-break, my first time away since October 2019, before Covid, and I've spent this afternoon walking the streets, admiring the stunning Regency architecture, enjoying the tree-lined streets, and beautiful parks. I found this, the Whish Fountain, in Sandford Park. The signboard explained: 

The Whish Fountain is named after the three benevolent Whish sisters, Mary, Anne and Ellen. To commemorate their fifty years' residency in Cheltenham, the elderly sisters kindly commissioned and donated the drinking fountain as a gift to the people in 1891.

Carved out of Seaton stone, with a 22 foot high weather vane, the fountain was originally installed at Westal Green on the Lansdown Road in 1901. Due to road widening and redevelopment of that site, the fountain was later rehomed to Sandford Park in 1929, where it has remained a decorative feature without its fountain and vane. 

Cardiff : more drinking fountains

Historic drinking fountains are one of my many fascinations and I’ve blogged previously about others I’ve found in Cardiff (October 2016), a couple in Penarth (March 2017), one in a park in Barry (May 2019) and a couple of chance discoveries in London (November 2019). Here are a couple more I’ve found in Cardiff.

Thompson’s Park

The Cardiff Parks website notes that the drinking fountain in Thompson’s Park

was shown on Ordnance Survey maps from 1901 until the 1950s, immediately to the west of the path running west of the miniature lake. It was moved between 1950 and 1980 to its present position, near the Romilly Road entrance, and it is not operational. The inscription states that it was presented by Mr C. Thompson.

I have not been able to discover precisely when this drinking fountain was first commissioned, though the need for such public watering places was recognised in the mid 1850s and Mr Charles Thompson, the man who gifted both this fountain and the park itself to the people of Cardiff, was present at one of the first meetings to discuss the need for drinking fountains. This report on the monthly meeting of the Cardiff Board of Health was filed in The Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian Glamorgan Monmouth and Brecon Gazette, 4 December 1858:

DRINKING FOUNTAINS.
The Mayor said he had received a letter from a gentleman, named Lewis, suggesting water fountains in the town. He brought this subject forward six months ago, but it was then thought to be premature. Mr. R. Williams said, Mr. C. Thompson was very anxious to do something in the matter, and he asked him to second any proposition which the Mayor might bring before the board. The Mayor was of opinion that the Surveyor should recommend the trial of two or three places where fountains might be put up at the expense of the town, private parties supplying the water.
Mr. Batchelor: Mr. Thompson had been in correspondence with Mr. Melby, of Liverpool, and had asked Mr. Paul to produce some designs. That gentleman had produced the two designs which were on the table, and were accompanied by the following:— The material proposed to be used throughout is the very hard and clean limestone from the Pennant quarries near Bristol. The arch above in design No. 1 to be of red and white bricks. In both cases the stone would be inserted in an existing wall, or incorporated with a new wall in course of erection; and the whole would thus be solid and firm, and not liable to displacement by rough usage. Design No. 2 would be applicable only to a thick wall—such as the Castle wall, but design No. 1 could be inserted in a brick wall nine inches only in thickness.
The character of the design is unique, and free from objections, which may be justly taken to a protruding head or spout for the flow of water. In either design it is intended to arrange the drips so that nothing larger than a small can or jug may be used in obtaining water.
The general idea is taken from the accompanying paper published by Mr. Melly on the drinking fountains recently erected in Liverpool and the suggestions there given as to supply and overflow are equally applicable here. The estimated cost of one complete fountain according to design No. 1 is £7 10s. Design No. 2 would cost about £9.
The Mayor moved that the surveyor be requested to name three places as best fitted for the purpose, and then advertise for the tenders, provided the water be supplied. Mr. Reece hoped that the Board would be more liberal than that. He thought that a public body should not only find the fountains but the water. Mr. Batchelor moved that the surveyor report upon the most eligible spots, and the number required for the entire town, and put himself in communication with the Water Works Company, to ascertain the cost per annum at which they will supply the fountains. A very small stream would be required. The motion was carried.

It would appear that the Thompson’s Park drinking fountain was not one of the initial three suggested by the Mayor at that 1858 meeting. Indeed, it may have been another 35 years before it was installed, as I discovered from a report in the South Wales Echo, 10 August 1893

CARDIFF WATERWORKS COMMITTEE
... A letter was read from Mr C. Thompson, Penhill Close, near Llandaff, asking that the water might be laid on to Cae Syr Dafydd [St David’s Field was the original name for Thompson’s Park]. The water would be required for watering the flowers and grass, as well as the supply of a small fountain.— The committee granted the application subject to such restrictions as would be required by the engineer.

Corner of Llandaff and Romilly Roads

I thought the Thompson’s Park fountain was looking a little sad and neglected but that was nothing compared to the remains of another drinking fountain, just along the road, on the corner of Llandaff and Romilly Roads. This fountain is perhaps 25 years older, having been officially inaugurated in April 1877.

Here’s the report from the South Wales Daily News, 17 April 1877

OPENING OF DRINKING FOUNTAIN AT CANTON.
Yesterday the fountain erected at the junction of the Llandaff-road and Romilly-crescent was opened for public use by Alderman Joseph Elliott, Mayor of Cardiff. Among those present were the Rev Mr Saulez, rector of Canton, Mrs Saulez, and other ladies; Mr T. V. Yorath, Mr G. F. Webb, Mr Benjamin Wright, Mr Alex. Melville, Mr G. Salmon, Mr J. A. B. Williams, Mr Geo. Robinson, the architect; and Mr F. S. Lock, the builder. The proceedings commenced by the Rev Mr Saulez offering up an appropriate prayer, followed by the reading of a psalm and the singing of a hymn by the Canton school children. The Mayor, after a few pertinent remarks, declared the fountain opened. Mr G. F. Webb, Mr B. Wright, and Mr A. Melville severally expressed their satisfaction in the event, and the proceedings concluded by a vote of thanks to the Mayor, and a benediction from the Rev J. W. Saulez. The fountain was prettily decorated with flowers.

It’s wonderful to see that this drinking fountain has been preserved from demolition but how much nicer it would be to see it respected and valued as an important part of Cardiff’s heritage.

London : drinking fountains

I was delighted to spot, completely by chance, these two lovely old drinking fountains during a recent visit to London. As I was out walking with friends, I couldn’t stop to get more detailed photos so have just a single image of each. I hope to return for a better look in the future.

George Sparkes Memorial Fountain

On the embankment, very close to Chelsea Old Church, is this 1880s memorial to George Sparkes

(1810-1878), who had worked as a judge in Madras for the East India Company and later bought a house in High Street, near the church.   

On his death, George Sparkes left his house and its extensive grounds, as well as a sizeable fortune (of £140,000) to his second wife, Emily Dowling (she had remarried). The drinking fountain, constructed of granite, was erected in April 1881, and bears two contemporary inscriptions, one in Latin and one in English:     

In Affectionate Remembrance of the Late
George Sparkes
Of Bromley in Kent Formerly Judge at Madras
In the East India Company’s Civil Service
A great and Good Man
Gifted with Every Refined Feeling
And Much Esteemed by All Who Knew Him
Died 30 January 1878
In His 68th Year
Erected by His Widow
A.D. 1880

The fountain was restored in 2016, as marked by another small plaque, which reads

The restoration of this fountain was undertaken by Transport for London and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
The completion of the works was marked in a ceremony led by the Worshipful the Mayor of the Royal Borough, Councillor Robert Freeman on 18th May 2016

A document on the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea website notes that the fountain also has four cattle troughs, though this part of London was not at all rural in 1881 so, presumably, it was more likely that horses, dogs and other animals used the lower water troughs. The document puts the cost of the memorial at £525.

Marquess of Westminster Memorial Fountain

This second fountain, also in Chelsea, on the corner of Pimlico and Ebury Roads, is also a memorial, this one to Richard Grosvenor (1795-1869), 2nd Marquess of Westminster. 

He was, amongst other things, an MP for Chester and later for Cheshire (and South Cheshire, after electoral boundary changes); Lord Steward of the Household; and a member of the Privy Council.

When he wasn’t hunting, fishing and indulging his family’s interest in horse racing, according to Wikipedia, he ‘gave generously to charity, and built and restored churches.’     

The Historic England website notes that the memorial fountain was erected around 1870 and was made of Portland stone and pink and grey granite. The style is Italian Renaissance and it features:

projecting bowls now filled. Upper stage pilastered to corner with carved capitals. Shell niche to each side, lined with mosaic work incorporating inscription. Dentil cornice and key pattern frieze. Surmounted by buff terracotta urn.

The inscription, which is on the east face of the memorial, reads ‘In memory of Richard Second Marquess of Westminster died 1869’.

Barry : a drinking fountain

During a recent thirst-inducing walk along the coastal path from Rhoose to Barry, I was delighted to notice an old drinking fountain when we finally reached Barry’s Cold Knap Park. Unfortunately, the fountain no longer works so we were ‘forced’ to visit a cafe across the road from the park, where they also sold nice cakes – a real hardship! But I have a bit of a thing about old drinking fountains (see my post on Penarth’s drinking fountains here and some in Cardiff here, so I’ve been trying to find out more about this one.

It seems the lack of drinking water has long troubled visitors to this area: in the Barry Dock News of 14 September 1906 an article reported the minutes of the latest Council meeting, at which the issue of a water supply for Romilly Park had been raised – that park is just across the road from Cold Knap Park, which did not exist at the time (that same newspaper contained an article reporting that the trustees of the Romilly Estate had decided to sell the land along the foreshore between Barry and Porthkerry where Cold Knap Park is now located).

And, in a letter to the Barry Dock News published on 26 August 1910, ‘Holiday-seeker’ raised the scandal of ‘pleasure-seekers’ picnicking at Cold Knap having to pay twopence to a local farmer for a kettleful of water to prepare tea – outrageous!

According to a Coflein report I managed to locate (Coflein is the online database for the National Monuments Record of Wales), the main construction phases of Cold Knap Park can be dated to the 1920s, and the Knap

Lido, which was located within the park and was one of the largest open-air swimming pools in Britain in its heyday, was opened on 1 May 1926. (The Lido closed in 1996, its buildings were demolished and the pool filled in during 2004.) So, I assume the drinking fountain also dates from the mid 1920s.

This date ties in well with an unofficial comment about the fountain that I found on the Friends of the Knap Gardens Facebook page. 

The post, dated 31 August 2016, contained comments about the recent sprucing up and painting of the old drinking fountain, and local resident Joanne Creek commented that she believed the drinking fountain had been installed in 1926 and had been cast by Goulds foundries of Barry – the firm of W. H. Gould, Iron and Brass Founder, was based nearby in Barry Dock. 

Joanne had also been lobbying the local council to have the water supply reinstated but, sadly, had not been successful.

The Coflein report confirms that the drinking fountain is, indeed, made of fluted cast iron, with two bowls on one side, and I have since discovered that the bottom bowl was intended for use by dogs needing a drink – brilliant idea! 

The structures within Cold Knap Park are Grade-II listed so I hope this means the drinking fountain will be protected for future generations to admire, if not to use. I’m sure the local Friends group will be keeping a watchful eye on it.

Penarth: Drinking fountains

If you’re a regular to this blog, you’ll know that I’m a fan of drinking fountains and various things cast-iron so imagine my delight when I was walking past St Augustine’s Church, here in Penarth, recently and discovered it has a magnificent old drinking fountain built in to the south-western side of its stone boundary wall. And it’s a cracking fountain!

The church itself was built in 1865-66 but I haven’t been able to discover whether the drinking fountain was also installed around that time or whether it was a later addition. 

This cast-iron scallop-shell beauty was made in Glasgow at the Saracen Foundry, home to Walter MacFarlane & Co Ltd, Scotland’s most important manufacturer of ornamental ironwork.

MacFarlane’s had a catalogue of their cast-iron creations, which include this model, No. 17 Drinking Fountain. I have read that only four examples of this particular pattern still exist but I’m not sure if that’s true. 

It’s certainly a very ornate piece, with a splendid pair of griffins flanking the top arch, a graceful crane standing amongst reeds in the centre medallion, and what looks to me like a stylised peacock, its mouth/beak the tap for the water (but that may be my fertile imagination!).

Penarth also boasts a second old drinking fountain, though you might struggle to recognise it as such these days, as only a table-like pedestal remains. It’s located in Alexandra Park, very near an ornamental fountain and a group of bird cages housing budgies and canaries.

According to the Memorial Drinking Fountains blog (yes, there is someone who loves these artworks even more than I do!), this fountain was another of Walter MacFarlane’s designs, a number 7, and

The original structure was 5 feet 8 inches high, a single pedestal with four decorative columns and descending salamander relief that supported the decorated basin. A central urn with four projecting tendrils offered drinking cups suspended by chains. The terminal was a crane, a symbol of vigilance.

This drinking fountain was apparently purchased in 1911; it was certainly installed prior to 1915 as it can be seen in an old postcard of the park dated that year.

It seems Penarth may once have had more historic drinking fountains which have since been lost as I found this report in The Cardiff Times of 10 July 1886, p.8:

PENARTH LOCAL BOARD.

The usual monthly meeting was held on Monday evening, there being present Messrs Edwards (chairman), Forrest, Ingram, Pile, Bevan, Shepherd, Belcher, and Corbett. The Chairman reported that the seats, committee had arranged to place 36 seats in various parts of Penarth (such as the Esplanade, the Dingle, and Beach-hill), one set of ladies' retiring-rooms, two urinals, and two drinking fountains on the Esplanade, one drinking fountain near the police-station, and another near the Ship Hotel.

The Ship Hotel was demolished soon after the Second World War and, though I’ve walked the streets around the other locations named in the newspaper report, unfortunately I’ve found no evidence of those other old fountains. What I have found though is the modern equivalent.

The 21st-century version was installed with much fanfare in September 2013 in Belle Vue Park. The Penarth News blog reports that this modern American-made drinking fountain, ‘the first of its kind in Europe’ (!), was erected to celebrate the centenary of the park. Two councillors turned out, local residents dressed in period costume, and a time capsule was even planted beneath this new-fangled innovation.

It may provide ‘a vertical stream from which people can drink, a bottle filling facility which it’s hoped will encourage the re-use of plastic bottles and a special drinking bowl for dogs at the base’ but, personally, I think it’s ugly, and it’s certainly no match for the wonderful works of art that Walter MacFarlane & Co manufactured back in the good old days!

Cardiff’s historic drinking fountains

Given the number of blogs I post about pubs and their signs, you might be forgiven for thinking I’m a bit of a lush but you would be wrong. And just to prove I do sometimes think about other types of liquid than those containing alcohol, today’s post is about water, or, rather, the places where Cardiffians used to be able to drink good quality, free water in public.

Nowadays, drinking or water fountains are typically bland circular stainless-steel creations that resemble shiny bird baths and have taps that either squirt you in the face due to their excessive water pressure or have so little pressure that you almost have to suck the water from the tap, something no hygiene-mindful person would want to do. But, in Victorian times, drinking fountains, though performing the necessary public service of providing clean drinking water to an ever-increasing and thirsty population, were often quite grand and artistic creations.

The earliest drinking fountain I’ve located in Cardiff was not quite so grand, though it was certainly built to last. It dates from 1860, the very early days of the drinking fountain movement in Britain (the first fountain in London was erected in April 1859, in the wall of St Sepulchre’s churchyard in Snow Hill, according to The Welshman newspaper, 1 April 1859). Cardiff’s fountain was originally built into a wall of the Town Hall in St Mary’s Street but was moved when that building was demolished. It now sits in the wall of a bridge over part of the old Glamorgan Canal, and I doubt many of the passers-by even notice it.

The inscription at the top reads: ‘Jesus said unto her, whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst. John IV.19.14’, and the lower inscription acknowledges that the fountain was donated to the city by William Alexander, Mayor of Cardiff in 1859-60.

The next drinking fountain wins the prize for the most colourful and extravagant decoration. It sits in a wonderful old building that was originally the Free Library but is currently home to the Cardiff Story museum, amongst other things. 

The fountain is ceramic, made by Burmantoffs Pottery in Leeds, in green, brown and buff-coloured faience, with wonderful low-relief female figures flanking the water spout itself. 

The entire corridor in which it’s located is lined with majolica, with printed and painted tiles depicting the time of day and the seasons, the barrel-vaulted ceiling is clad in faience, and the floor is covered with patent mosaic tiles. The whole is a model of flamboyance!

From the ostentatious to the practical; the stone fountain in Llandaff Fields is another that was built to last, and it has certainly outlasted the old tree that was growing behind it when it was first built. The Evening Express of 8 May 1901 reported on its beginnings:

NEW DRINKING FOUNTAIN IN LLANDAFF FIELDS.

By the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. H. M. Thompson, of Llandaff, there was on Monday fixed beneath the old elm tree in Llandaff Fields a substantially-built ornamental fountain, which will, doubtless, be regarded as a boon by the frequenters of this resort. It is of red Forest stone, of simple, yet effective, design, and is the work of Mr. Clarke, sculptor, &c. of Llandaff. The water has been laid on, and the fountain is now ready for use.

These days the fountain looks rather forlorn, an abandoned relic of another time, and seems often to be in danger of being knocked over by the over-zealous drivers of the lawn-mowing machinery.

The final two drinking fountains date from the early 1900s, the one in Victoria Park from 1908 and the other, in Grange Park, from 1909. There were others in this same design scattered about Cardiff but they have long since disappeared. The fountains were designed by Macfarlanes of Glasgow and made by the Saracen Foundry in Possilpark, Glasgow, a company then considered the most prolific architectural iron foundry in the world. Similar fountain canopies can be seen around Britain (there is one on display in the Grand Hall of the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh).

The Cardiff drinking fountains were gifted to the city by the family of Mr Moses Samuel, a well known local watchmaker and jeweller, who passed away in June 1894, in his memory and in memory of other members of the Samuel family.

On 7 August 1908, the Evening Express reported on the unveiling of the Victoria Park Fountain:

Councillor John Chappell, J.P., and the members of the parks committee were present at Victoria. Park, Canton, Cardiff, on Thursday evening, for the purpose of dedicating to the use of the public a drinking fountain, presented to the city by Mr. Isaac Samuel, J.P. There were also present Miss Lena Samuel, Mr. Gertrude Samuel (London), Mr. Percy Samuel, Mr. Isaac Samuel, Mr. M. Lewis, president of the Hebrew congregation; Mr. L. Joseph, and other friends of the family. Mr. Chappell formally accepted the fountain on behalf of the citizens, and spoke very highly of the qualities possessed by the late Mr. Samuel. Mr. Isaac Samuel, in replying, said that he and his brothers were only too pleased to establish a connecting link between their father and the city of Cardiff. The ceremony, which was witnessed by a huge crowd, concluded with votes of thanks to the donor and chairman.

The following month, on 19 September 1908, the Cardiff Times reported the unveiling of a fountain in The Hayes, in central Cardiff, and noted that

Drinking fountains had already been erected in Roath Park to the memory of Mr and Mrs Samuel, parents of the present donors; in Victoria Park, to the memory of Mr Lewin Samuel, and in North-road, to Mr Louis Samuel, and it is intended to erect two more, one in Splott Park and the other in Roath recreation ground, to commemorate the late Mr Arthur Samuel and Mrs Joseph.

I found no mention of the drinking fountain in Grange Park so it’s possible it is one of the ones mentioned above and was later relocated to its present position, where it makes a handsome addition to the structures in the park, in particular the grand old band rotunda.