Drinking Fountain

This drinking fountain, dating from around 1890, is located in Hedgemead Park, which was designed by T.B. Silcock in 1889. The fountain is made of cast iron and stands approximately 4 meters high on a three-step octagonal stone base. Its design features a tapering cylindrical shape with four ornamented segmental curved bowls at waist height, each supported by mythical rampant lions and decorative strapwork bands. Above each bowl, there are scrolled pediments set against fluted backgrounds, with water jets positioned between the scrolls. The base of the main shaft is fluted and adorned with a ring of stylized acanthus leaves. Above this, there is a band with four scrolled horn-like projections, which may have once held chains for drinking cups. The upper part of the fountain is decorated with willow leaves and berries, and the cylindrical capital features ring moulding and acanthus-type leaves that support an octagonal cyma-moulded bowl. At the center of this bowl rises a spread eagle on a moulded octagonal base. While T.B. Silcock may have designed the fountain, it is also possible that it was purchased from a catalogue.