Churton Memorial Drinking Fountain

This is a drinking fountain, dated 1882. It is constructed from banded pink and grey granite for the base, and banded red and grey sandstone ashlar for the upper parts. The design is in a Gothic Revival style, with an octagonal plan.

The base has a moulded stone cornice, and steps lead up to chamfered arched recesses at the front and back. These recessed areas originally featured copper lion-mask spouts and semi-circular bowls, and also contained animal troughs on each side, which were later converted into flower beds. An inscription runs around the top: "EVERY : ONE : THAT : DRINKETH / OF : THIS : WATER / SHALL THIRST : AGAIN / BUT : WHOSOEVER / DRINKETH : OF : THE : WATER : THAT / I : SHALL : GIVE : HIM / SHALL : NEVER : THIRST / ST JOHN : CHAP 4: VER 13 & 14".

The upper section is offset and has moulded arches to the front and back, each featuring two cinquefoil-headed lights (without a central shaft). There is blind tracery and flanking square buttresses with battlemented caps, topped by crocketed gables with finials. The sides have two cinquefoil-headed blind panels, an octagonal pier with a moulded base and cap, and a disused gas-lamp fitting. Above this is an octagonal pinnacle with blind ogee trefoil-headed panels on the sides, gables above, and a short crocketed spire with a wrought-iron cross finial.

A carved panel within the arch on the east side depicts two women drawing water from a well. An inscription in the arch on the west side, though partially illegible in 1986, reads: "THIS FOUNTAIN WAS/ ERECTED BY JOHN CHURTON / OF ... / IN LOVING MEMORY OF / HIS PARENTS AND... WIFE / ANN CHURTON AND AS / A MEMORIAL OF HIS / AFFECTIONATE & ENDURING / INTEREST IN THE WELFARE / OF HIS NATIVE TOWN 1882".

Originally situated at the junction of Green End, Brownlow Street, Talbot Street, and Station Road, the fountain was moved to its present location in the early 1930s when the new by-pass was constructed in 1924 and it became an obstruction to traffic.