Water pump, early C19, cast iron, straight undecorated column in four sections, third section includes fluted spout with bucket lug, with upper fourth section fluted and including pump handle and cap. A cast iron trough sits in font of the pump and is part of the original setting. Maker’s mark is Joseph Evans with Evans Lion logo. The water pump and cast iron trough are set within a roadside alcove – the adjoining fence and hedge are not included in the Listing. The setting has now been landscaped with gravel to make the pump more conspicuous. The pump has been recently refurbished and mended, and is now in excellent decorative condition.
On Jennett’s Hill, Cock Lane, opposite Casey Court, Stanford Dingley.
The pump was manufactured by Joseph Evans & Sons, and casting and embossing on the pump suggested it dated after 1890. The British Geological Survey has a National Well Record and there is a detailed map with the pump delineated halfway up Jennetts Hill as BGS 418512. It had been published in 1902 by H.M.S.O. “The Water Supply of Berkshire from Underground Sources.” The report was opportune because the pump had only been installed 2 years beforehand.
The installation had been carried out by Messrs Callas, Sons and May on behalf of Bradfield District Council in 1900. It was a borehole, tubed with 30 feet of 3-inch tube and 50 feet of 4-inch tube. The altitude of the pump was around 230 feet above sea level and the water 40 feet 6 inches from the surface. The record is annotated in 1941 as ‘Local Cottage Supply’ and again on 2nd May 1979 as ‘pump still standing but unused’.
It is likely that the pump was erected in 1900 because of an outbreak of typhoid amongst villagers on Jennetts Hill, and the Rural District Council paid £80 to have a borehole and pump installed.
The pump sits close to the Conservation Area and as the Parish Council’s research has established, it has an important role in the village’s history, and may have been erected to combat a typhoid epidemic. Pumps from the early 1900’s are important survivors in the landscape, (many were removed and melted down for their metal in WW2), and would have been essential for the residents in the days when piped water was not available. Stanford Dingley has a number of nationally listed buildings, including two outside the Conservation Area on Jennett’s Hill, and the pump contributes to the streetscene and is notable for its history within the village.
HER Record: MWB21969
Location
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