Sandwith Memorial Drinking Fountain

Memorial drinking fountain and trough, 1883, commemorating Humphry Sandwith MD, DCL, CB.

MATERIALS: ashlar Cornish granite, with secondary polished Indian black, and Norwegian blue-pearl granite commemorative panels.

PLAN: kidney-shaped plan, with a projecting memorial pedestal to the rear.

DESCRIPTION: the drinking fountain has four distinct parts, a kidney-shaped large horse trough, two low-set over-flow dog troughs, a memorial pedestal, and a hand basin to the rear. The horse trough is kidney-shaped, and stands to waist-height; it has vertical curved outer surfaces that are surmounted by projecting bull-nosed granite copings, which slope gently back into the centre to form the main bowl of the fountain. Two rectangular-shaped dog troughs are recessed back into the curved front elevation and are raised just above ground level. The rear wall of each of these recesses, is coved up to the front face of the fountain and has a centrally set lead water feed pipe, formerly fed by a blocked over-flow drain in the lip of the main bowl. The base of each of the dog trough has a chamfered lip, and the bowls have been in-filled with cement. A cambered (round-arched) granite memorial pedestal, with chamfered and stopped edges, and stepped moulded plinths to either side, stands centrally at the rear of the horse trough. A waist-height hand basin with rounded edges projects out from the rear of the pedestal, supported on an integral moulded shelf, set above a former opening, in-filled by a granite tablet inscribed with the mason's name: DAVID MOONEY 2019. The basin has a central notched over-flow gully with one to either side; it has a stub of a cut-off bronze ring, formerly used for suspending drinking cups. The bowl of the basin has been in-filled by a rectangular black granite slab, with rounded corners. The front of the pedestal has an inset secondary, polished black granite, stepped memorial tablet, with hand-cut, incised gilded lettering, it reads: HUMPHRY SANDWITH./ M.D., D.C.L., C.B./ BORN IN THIS TOWN APRIL12.1822/ DIED IN PARIS MAY 16.1881./ HIS FAMILY HAVE SET UP THIS/ FOUNTAIN TO HIS MEMORY AND TO THE/ BENEFIT OF HIS FELLOW TOWNSMEN. The rear cavity of the pedestal is in-filled by blue-pearl granite panels; the upper cambered panel is inscribed by a sunburst and an inset tablet reads: RENOVATED/ 2019./ BY THE/ BRIDLINGTON/ TOWN COUNCIL.