Ostler Memorial Fountain

Ostler Memorial Fountain

A memorial drinking fountain of 1860, designed by Edward Browning in High Victorian Gothic style, now located in Bourne Cemetery. It is constructed in Portland stone with Aberdeen granite.

The fountain consists of a moulded square base with a sunken drinking basin. Each of the four sides of the base contains a dog trough in a segmental-headed recess. Above the base stand four short columns with red granite shafts and carved foliated capitals, supporting four cinquefoil-headed arches beneath pedimental canopies that terminate in foliated finials (one missing). Rising from the centre of the canopies is a spire topped with a large foliated finial. Within the triangular space above each arch sits a blank escutcheon set in a circle and surrounded by carvings of plant forms: thorn, ivy, maple, buttercup, wheatear, hazel, ground ivy and convolvulus. At the angles from which the canopies spring are carved symbols of the evangelists: St Matthew's angel, St Mark's winged lion, St Luke's ox and St John's eagle.

A carved inscription runs around the four sides of the base, below the granite columns, stating: 'This fountain was erected by subscription for the use of the public in memory of John Lely Ostler, Esq., late of Cawthorpe House, 1860.'

Edward Browning was a well-known Stamford architect responsible for more than thirty listed buildings. He also designed the Bourne Cemetery Chapel, which opened in 1855.

John Lely Ostler (1811–1859) was a prominent lawyer from a distinguished Grantham family. After moving to Cawthorpe House near Bourne in 1854, he became one of the largest landowners in the town. He was a dedicated Christian and philanthropist whose charitable works included building a school at Dyke in 1854, donating land for the Infants School in Eastgate in 1856, and providing a site for the Bourne Waterworks Company. Upon his death in June 1859, the Grantham Journal reported: 'Few persons have enjoyed the praises of his neighbours and fellow townsmen for the benevolent purity of his motives more than the deceased.' The Stamford Mercury noted: 'The rich and the poor have lost a valuable and sincere friend.' Ostler was buried in Bourne Cemetery, marked by a sculpted stone sarcophagus.

A fountain was erected to his memory by public subscription in the Market Place, a fitting tribute given his instrumental role in establishing the Bourne Waterworks Company in 1856, which brought piped water to the town. The fountain cost £120; the builders were John and James Sneath of Baston, and the stone carving was undertaken by William Hilliam, stonemason of Stamford. The fountain suffered continued vandalism and maintenance problems; by 1888 the finials had been mutilated and the water supply was cut off.

In 1962, the fountain was removed from the Market Place due to a road improvement scheme and was subsequently re-erected in Bourne Cemetery, where as a memorial it has a fitting connection with John Ostler's tomb and the Cemetery Chapel designed by Edward Browning.