Manual Ref* SUwaLO030 Show 8 images 879
Title*

Memorial fountain for Richard Henry Reeve
County Suffolk   District Council Waveney District Council 
Civil Parish or equivalent Lowestoft  Town/Village* Lowestoft 
Road Kirkley Cliff Road 
Precise Location Kensington Gardens 
OS Grid Ref TM542912  Postcode NR33 
Previous location(s) Royal Plain 
Setting Gardens  Access Public 
Artist/Maker Role Qualifier
Not known  Sculptor(s)   

Commissioned by

 Mary Ethelind Franey 

Design & Constrn period

 1890, installed here 1922 

Date of installing

 Here, 1922 

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: Commemorative column with winged lion

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
Lion  Bronze  1 high 
Ionic column  Portland stone  3 high 
Plinth  Portland stone  90 cm high 5 wide and deep 
Base  Granite  70 cm. high, 1.10 wide and deep 
Steps  Concrete  30 cm high 5 by 5 wide and long 

Work is
Extant Not Sited Lost

Owner/Custodian

 Waveney District Council 

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: The bronze lion is covered in green patina, which has stained the top of the column, the lower, fluted section has cracks and the gaps left when the fittings for the fountain were removed can be made out above the bronze swags and on the plinth.

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

Vandalism
Graffiti Structural damage Surface Damage
Detail:

Overall condition
Good Fair Poor

Risk
No Known Risk At Risk Immediate
Signatures/Marks  
Inscriptions Beginning with that facing the sea: In Memory of Richard Henry Reeve/ Lord of the Manor of Lowestoft/ Who Died October 1888/ This Fountain Is Erected by Mary Ethelind Franey 

Description (physical)

 Designed for a site on Royal Plain as an ornamental fountain with a winged lion on its column, a notable bow to the comaparable column at the entrance to the Piazzetta in Venice, although at Lowestoft, a very different lion rests its front paws on the prow of an early Venetian boat. Its history, with no mention of architect or sculptor, begins with the handwritten minute in the Borough of Lowestoft Council Minutes, Vol. I p. 255-56, (housed at Lowestoft Record Office) for 8 October 1889 noting a letter from Mr C.T. Turner asking for permission for an ornamental fountain for the use of the public to be installed in front of the Royal Hotel, adding that if approved the donor would submit a plan and design. A sub committee was appointed and their approval of the scheme was minuted (p.260) on 29 October. The fountain, standing in a large circular basin, is shown in an 1893 photograph at the Lowestoft Record Office, but worries about the safety of the basin led to its removal and replacement by four smaller ones fixed to the base of the fountain (shown in photos from around 1900). Its removal to Kensington Gardens in 1921, where it can just be made out in the background of a photograph by Francis Frith of 1922, is notable for the striking failure to mention the fountain. The change was prompted by the decision to replace it with the World War I memorial. 

Description (iconographical)

 Little is known about Reeve, who in 1875 was also Lord of the Manor of Ashby, a tiny village on the Waveney near Beccles, and he is listed in Harrod’s Directory of Norfolk and Lowestoft, Norwich, 1877 p. 843 as ‘solicitor; clerk to the justices for Mutford and Lothingland; clerk to the commissioners for income, land, and assessed taxes, clerk to the commissioners of sewers for the hundreds of Blything and Mutford, Lothingland and Wangford, superintendent registrar of the districts of Mutford and Lothingland, office, High Street.’ 

Photographs

 Date taken:  13/3/2009
Date logged: 

Photographed by:
Sarah Cocke

On Site Inspection

 Date:  13/3/2009

Inspected by:
Richard Cocke

Sources and References

 Caik, S., Lowestoft through the Ages, Gunton Hall, 1979, p. 32 Lowestoft Tourist Information, Lowestoft trail atwww.lowestoftforever.zoomshare.com/3; www.francisfrith.com/lowestoft/photos/kensington-gardens-1922_72508/ www.lothingland.co.uk/ashby3.htm accessed 12/03/2009 

Database

 Date entered:  17/3/2009

Data inputter:
Richard Cocke