what3words address: ///test.jams.pounds

While we still have the drinking fountain by the play area it was not the first drinking fountain to be installed in the public park.  The first was funded and designed in May 1906 and delivered in 1907.  It was presented to the park and funded by Edward Cheshire.  Other than this we know very little other than what we can see from photographs.  It was off the main driveway, near where the modern culvert is now, and was surrounded by planting.  

Titles on some photographs suggest that it was called The Well.  It may have used a natural spring for water.  We know from the Parks Department minutes that at least one of the fountains in Warley Park required the installation of a four-inch water pipe from the nearest lodge and we know the Gothic drinking fountain was supplied in that way, but we are unsure about “The Well” itself.

Again using information from the Parks Department minutes, we think they began considering removing this drinking fountain as early as 1924.  It is described as being “near the Golf House”, which was not the Pavilion we have today, but some other structure on the golf course erected by the person who provided refreshments.  The minutes said it had not been working for a considerable time and it was felt to be a danger to children from golf balls if it was left and that it might be re-erected in another park.

While this location in the modern park may not seem close enough to the golf course, it is actually very close, and there has just been a growing density of trees between the locations over the years.  If we are not correct, then there must have been a third drinking fountain somewhere!

It seems likely that nothing happened about it in the 1920s as its poor condition, appeared in the minutes again in 1956 and the General Manager was due to report back on it.  Its days were finally numbered and we believe it was demolished in the 1960s, as one of the apprentices then remembers removing it as one of his first tasks.

Would you like to read about somewhere else on the history trail?  Go back to the main listing page.