Manual Ref* NFnrNOR106 Show image 291
Title*

Gurney Drinking Fountain and Obelisk
County Norfolk   District Council Norwich City Council 
Civil Parish or equivalent Norwich  Town/Village* Norwich 
Road Tombland 
Precise Location On pedestrian island in front of St. Ethelbert's Gate 
OS Grid Ref TG234086  Postcode NR3 
Previous location(s)  
Setting Road or Wayside  Access Public 
Artist/Maker Role Qualifier
John Bell  Designer(s)   

Commissioned by

 John Gurney 

Design & Constrn period

 1860 

Date of installing

  

Exact date of unveiling

  

Category
Abstract Animal Architectural
Commercial Commemorative Composite
Free Functional Funerary
Heraldic Military Natural
Non-Commemorative Performance Portable
Religious Roadside, Wayside Sculptural
Temporary, Mobile Other  

Object Type
Building Clock Tower Architectural
Coat of Arms Cross Fountain
Landscape Marker Medallion
Mural Panel Readymade
Relief Shaft Sculpture
Statue Street Furniture War Memorial
Other Object Sub Type: Obelisk and drinking fountain

Subject Type
Allegorical Mythological Pictorial
Figurative Non-figurative Portrait
Still-life Symbolic Other

Subject Sub Type
Bust Equestrian Full-length
Group Head Reclining
Seated Standing Torso
Part Material Dimension
Obelisk  Dressed granite  H. 3 metres 60 cms. W.&D. 60 cms at base 
Plinth, with bowl for drinking fountain  Dressed granite  H. 1 metre W. 76 cms. 
Base  Dressed granite  H. 30cms W. 1 metre 
At rear basin for cattle  Dressed granite  H. 36 cms. W. 1 metre D. 72 cms. 

Work is
Extant Not Sited Lost

Owner/Custodian

 Norwich City Councl 

Listing status
Grade I Grade II* Grade II Don't Know Not Listed

Surface Condition
Corrosion, Deterioration Accretions
Bird Guano Abrasions, cracks, splits
Biological growth Spalling, crumbling
Metallic staining Previous treatments
Other  
Detail: Discoloured, towards road, considerable biological growth on side facing north. Drinking fountains need clearing

Structural Condition
Armature exposed Broken or missing parts
Replaced parts Loose elements
Cracks, splits, breaks, holes Spalling, crumbling
Water collection Other
Detail: Water supply missing

Vandalism
Graffiti Structural damage Surface Damage
Detail:

Overall condition
Good Fair Poor

Risk
No Known Risk At Risk Immediate
Signatures/Marks  
Inscriptions At bottom on plinth: THE (GIFT?) OF/ JOHN HENRY GURNEY/ 1860 Plaque on obelisk reads: OBELISK FOUNTAIN/ BETWEEN 1700 AND 1850 MACHINERY USED/ TO RAISE AND STORE WATER FOR THE HIGHER/ PARTS OF THE CITY STOOD ON THIS SITE./TO COMMEMORATE THIS IN 1860 A/ DRINKING FOUNTAIN WAS ERECTED/ BY JOHN HENRY GURNEY 

Description (physical)

 A drinking fountain with two bowls marked by an obelisk 

Description (iconographical)

 John Gurney (1819-1890) was MP for King's Lynn. In the following year John Bell designed another memorial drinking fountain combined with obelisk at Stratford in memory of John Gurney's uncle Samuel Gurney. The commission for a fountain with clean drinking water was part of a wider Victorian concern prompted by concerns over Cholera which was rife during the nineteenth century. In 1849, for example, it claimed 5,308 lives in Liverpool and 1,834 in Hull. In 1854 an outbreak in Soho ended after removal of the handle of the Broad Street pump by a committee instigated to action by the physician and self-trained scientist John Snow (1813-1858). Snow had established the link between cholera and contaminated drinking water in 1854, in addition, Henry Whitehead, an Anglican minister, helped Snow track down and verify the source of the disease, which turned out to be an infected well in London. Their conclusions were widely distributed and firmly established for the first time a definite link between germs and disease. Clean water and good sewage treatment, despite their major engineering and financial cost, slowly became a priority throughout the major developed cities in the world from this time onward.  

Photographs

 Date taken:  2/4/2006
Date logged: 

Photographed by:
Sarah Cocke

On Site Inspection

 Date:  2/4/2006

Inspected by:
Richard Cocke

Sources and References

 Barnes Richard The Obelisk. Monumental Feature in Britain Kirstead 2004 30 and 67 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ (accessed 2/4/2006) 

Database

 Date entered:  19/2/2007

Data inputter:
Richard Cocke