The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Proposals to site a huge, Gothic-style drinking fountain in Spalding Cemetery have not been universally welcomed.
The fountain, gifted by the Spalding Water Works Company as a thank-you to benefactor Mary Ann Johnson, is currently in storage.
It had been in the town’s Hall Place since 1874 after Miss Johnson gave £1,500 to pipe fresh water for residents.
The sum is equivalent to around £150,000 today and the water company erected the eye-catching fountain to mark her generosity. Life expectancy in the town in the 1850s was just 23 years and nine months, while around a third of children died before the age of five.
The landmark fountain was dismantled in 1954, amid acrimony, to make way for ‘experimental traffic measures.’ It took another two years before it was put up again in Ayscoughfee Gardens. But it was taken down to make way for the War Memorial and the pieces are now in storage.
SHDC portfolio holder for assets and planning Coun Rodney Grocock said last week he would like it put with the other Gothic-style buildings in Spalding Cemetery as part of improvement plans.
But the town’s Civic Society wants the fountain in a central spot.
“Mary Ann Johnson is a woman of whom we can be proud. Only a town centre site could do justice to her invaluable contribution to its past wellbeing, along with an information plate,” said president John Charlesworth in a letter to The Voice.
“It is a grand celebration, a thank-you in stone,” and would “uplift” the town centre he added.
