Manual Ref* NFnrNOR118 Show 4 images 81
Title*

Gybson’s Conduit
County Norfolk   District Council Norwich City Council 
Civil Parish or equivalent Norwich City Council  Town/Village* Norwich 
Road Westwick Road 
Precise Location North facing wall in Anchor Quay Development 
OS Grid Ref TG227087  Postcode NR3 
Previous location(s) Moved to wall facing onto Westwick Road in 1868- earlier exact location not known 
Setting Outside- attached to wall  Access Public 
Artist/Maker Role Qualifier
Thomas Goodwin  Stonemason(s)   

Commissioned by

 Robert Gybson 

Design & Constrn period

 1578 

Date of installing

 1578 

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: Wall 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
Coat of arms and Tudor rose  Stone, repainted  H 255 cms W 180 cms 
Curved pediment  Stone  H 180cms W 180 ms 

Work is
Extant Not Sited Lost

Owner/Custodian

 Norwich Preservation Trust, acquired from the Crown Estate 2009 with a grant from the Norwich Society 

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: Restored by the Norwich Preservation Trust 2009-2011, http://norwichpreservationtrust.co.uk/gybsons-conduit-westwick-st-scheduled-ancient-monument/

Structural Condition
Armature exposed Broken or missing parts
Replaced parts Loose elements
Cracks, splits, breaks, holes Spalling, crumbling
Water collection Other
Detail: Two replacement urns and outer rim of pediment as well as stone lower down the fountain.

Vandalism
Graffiti Structural damage Surface Damage
Detail: To the supporting wall

Overall condition
Good Fair Poor

Risk
No Known Risk At Risk Immediate
Signatures/Marks  
Inscriptions On Pediment: VIVAT REGINA to sides of strapwork frame and coat of arms. On coat of arms HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE On the base of pediment to right GYBSON around a sun. Inscription to left no longer readable. Cotman's 1818 etching shows the name as:ROBERT. Three panels with inscriptions between the two cornices. To left {TH}IS WATER HERE CAUGHT/IN SORTE AS YOU MAY SE[E]/FROM A SPRING IS BROUGHTE/THREESKORE FOOT AND THREE In centre: GYBSON HATH IT SOUGHTE/FROM SAYNT LAWRENS WELL/AND HIS CHARG THIS WROWTETH/WHO NOW HERE DO DWELL Right THY EAS WAS HIS COSTE NOT SMAL/VOUCHSAFIED WEL OF THOSE/WHICH THANKFUL [BE] HIS WORK TO SE/AND THERE BE NO FOES 

Description (physical)

 Conduit/fountain made up of a curved pediment with Royal coat of arms in a strapwork cartouche under a crown and flanked by a Tudor rose and portcullis. Two modern urns at side. First cornice includes lion’s head to right; disfigured on left. It frames three panels with inscriptions. These are flanked by base of cornice decorated with sun. One on left has lost its inscription. One on right reads: GYBSON split around sun (Pun intended). The four centred hoodmould has decoration in the spandrels but the lower part (the site of the original well) has been replaced by modern stone and the pump handle separated and set to to the right of the main body of the fountain. The attribution to the Norwich stonemason Thomas Goodwin was first proposed by Jon Bayliss. The restrained decoration of the segmental pediment is typical of his work, mostly on church monuments from this period. 

Description (iconographical)

 There had long been an open well at St Lawrence’s a short distance from the street, granted to the parishioners in 1547 together with the lane, which they had to keep gated and closed. In 1577 the rights to St Lawrence's Lane were granted to Gybson, on condition that he installed a pump to allow parishioners access to the water from the well. The conduit included the name of Robert Gybson on the left. Robert Gybson was admitted into the Register of Freemen in 1577 - a privilege usually granted to sons of freemen when they were sixteen. It therefore seems likely that Gybson's father, Andrew, undertook the commission to celebrate Robert’s accession as a freeman. Like his father Robert was a brewer and sheriff in 1596 but had a fairly disreputable career - losing his aldermanship in 1602 because he refused to take the prescribed precautions against the plague. The conduit was moved as part of Bullard’s building of the Anchor brewery on the site from 1857-68, when it faced onto Westwick street. It is shown in an etching by J.S. Cotman of 1818, with no indication of its setting, and a drawing by J.J. Cotman of 1867 (NWHCM 1939.14.2:F) under a balcony. Following the redevelopment of the site for housing in 1982-7 it was removed from the street and now faces north on a wall backing onto the street. Entry and photos revised 08/11/2011 

Photographs

 Date taken:  24/2/2006
Date logged: 

Photographed by:
Sarah Cocke

On Site Inspection

 Date:  24/2/2006

Inspected by:
Richard Cocke

Sources and References

 Knights, M. ‘St Lawrence’s Well, Norwich and Gibsons conduit’, Norfolk and Norwich Arch Journal, 1888, X, 185-191 www.the-plunketts.freeserve.co.uk 26/02/06 Millican, Percy, The Register of the Freemen of Norwich 1548-1713, Norwich, 1934 p. 21 notes under Brewers of Beer, Robtus. Gibson, filius Andree Gibson, civis Norwich 3 May 19 Eliza (Robert Gibson, son of Andrew Gibson, citizen of Norwich, (admitted) 3 May 19th year following accession of Elizabeth I (1558) -e.g. 1577 Kent, Arnold and Stephenson, Andrew, Norwich Inheritance, Norwich 1949, 89; Margaret Pelling, 'Health and Sanitation', in Rawcliffe, C. and Wilson, R. eds, Norwich since 1550, Hambledon and London, 2004, 134-135; John Bayliss, ‘Thomas Gooding or Goodwin, a Norwich Freemason’, T. A. Heslop and Helen E. Lunnon eds, Norwich: Medieval and Early Modern Art, Architecture and Archaeology, British Archaeological Association Conference Transactions XXXVIII, 2015, 324-340 

Database

 Date entered:  19/5/2006

Data inputter:
Richard Cocke