More old pix of the Market Place

The pictures of the fountain in the Market Place posted yesterday, with questions about when it was removed from the square, produced an immediate response from local historian Christine Hodgetts who passed on some more interesting pictures. 

This one is a rather impressive print from the County Record Office. Christine thinks it may have been produced to coincide with an appeal for public subscriptions to have the fountain erected to commemorate Queen Victoria’s visit to the town in 1858. 

She says the records indicate that the outer cloverleaf-shaped basin (presumably a water trough for horses) was removed quite early on in the life of the fountain. Perhaps the water became dirty and undrinkable. 

The fountain was still in place in 1962, the date of the colour photo of the market below. 

Note the prison in the background and the bus stop outside The Green Dragon, now The Tilted Wig, on the right of the picture. Not long afterwards the fountain was removed – we don’t know exactly when – and apparently the pieces went for hardcore to the sewage works. The water trough is still in existence as a garden feature in a private house some miles away.