Drinking Fountain adjacent to Number 10 and opposite Number 11 Church Street

Drinking fountain, 1866 to a design by George Shaw for Miss Frances and Miss Maria Stanhope of Cannon Hall.

MATERIALS: sandstone.

DESCRIPTION: not inspected, information from other sources.

The drinking fountain takes the form of an Anglo-Scandinavian standing cross with an ornate expanded base mounted on a five-stepped podium with an in-set water trough on the north side.

All four faces of the cross head and tall shaft are richly carved within rope-carved frames. The cross head has interlacing patterns with intertwined serpent motifs to the shaft. The front elevation has a round-headed panel at the bottom of the shaft inscribed: WHOSOEVER / DRINKETH OF THIS WATER / SHALL THIRST AGAIN / BUT WHOSOEVER DRINKETH / OF THE WATER THAT I SHALL / GIVE HIM SHALL NEVER / THIRST BUT THE WATER / THAT I SHALL GIVE HIM / SHALL BE IN HIM A WELL / OF WATER SPRINGING UP / INTO EVERLASTING LIFE. / St John iv, 13-14.

The shaped, expanded base is deeply carved with interlocked beaked serpents and stands on the circular steps. The upper four steps have an angled wedge cut out on the north side into which a stone trough is set. It is carved with snakes coiled around a cross and once held a drinking fountain.