Monument record MDR10043 - Ticknall water system, Ticknall

A series of standpipes is located throughout the village of Ticknall. The standpipes have ornate cast iron covers with a lion's head for the water outlet and a stand to accommodate a collecting pail. This mains water supply was connected in 1914. In 1986, at least one was still operational and the majority were in good condition, being painted annually by Ticknall W.I. (1) In 1913 Sir Vauncey Harpur-Crewe of Calke Abbey initiated a scheme to provide Ticknall with a new water supply. It was agreed that the village should be watered from a number of stand pipes, which would be gravity fed from a reservoir to be served by a windpump. The hardware was manufactured by Glenfield and Kennedy Ltd of Kilmarnock. The pumps, or pillar fountains, were operated by a handle, with the water emerging from a spout at the mouth of a lion's head, to fill a receptacle placed upon a bracket at the base of a fluted pillar. A grid at the pillar base prevented debris from entering the channel that drained any surplus water. The pillars, some 3'6" high, were fitted with the Kennedy Patent Gun Metal Self Closing Valve. A total of 21 pillar fountains were installed, sixteen of which survive. All are Grade II listed buildings and all but two are painted in the old green livery of the Harpur-Crewe estate. They are maintained by the Ticknall Parish Council. In order to provide water to the taps, a substantial pump well was sunk near one of the sources of water for the village in the fields to the west of Spring Cottage. The well stands today, its brick plinth some 0.3m above the ground level, with a concrete cap some 4m in diameter. A windpump was erected nearby, although only the concrete blocks that secured its feet remain. Water was raised from the well to a reservoir to the south-west of Scaddows Cottage. The reservoir was made redundant by Severn-Trent Water in 1992. It had fed the village by gravity, through a 4" cast iron supply main. On the installation of mains water to the village in the 1960s the original pipes were found to be in remarkably good condition. (2)