Sidney Cooper Weston drinking fountain

Drinking fountain and lamp standard. Erected in 1897 to commemorate the local philanthropist Sidney Cooper Weston. Design by Andrew Handyside and Co of the Britannia Ironworks, Derby. Relocated in 1922.

MATERIALS: painted cast-iron with a base of stone slabs.

DESCRIPTION: the baroque style fountain consists of a quatrefoil-shaped shallow trough surrounding an elaborate drinking fountain topped with a lamp standard. The fountain has four curved buttresses with decorative mouldings and terminating in piers topped with statues of putti holding water urns. Set between the buttresses are semi-circular basins with gadroon mouldings set over cartouches with roundel decoration. Above the basins Poseidon masks provide water spouts. The masks are separated by inverted consoles and topped by a gadroon moulding. The pilasters have small lugs which would originally have had chains attached to drinking mugs, now lost.

The lamp standard is in the form of a Corinthian column. The bulbous base is enriched with acanthus leaves and the fluted shaft has two decorative bands. The lamp gallery has a central column and two branches (with additional scrollwork) each supporting a modern light fitting with a glass globe.

On the face of one of the piers is a plaque bearing the following inscription ERECTED/ 1897/ BY PUBLIC SUBSCRIPTION/ IN MEMORY OF/ SIDNEY COOPER WESTON/ OF THIS TOWN/ CHRISTIAN PHILANTHROPIST/ AND/ GOSPEL TEMPERANCE ADVOCATE/ BORN DEC 29TH 1842/ DIED JAN 25TH 1893/ PSALM 41.1 BLESSED IS HE THAT/ CONSIDERETH THE POOR.

The fountain stands on a low circular stone base, presumably replacing the original stone plinth when it was relocated in 1922.