Water lift pump near Pentre-Uchaf, Bryncrug

Cadw's description

Location

In a cut away section of hedge on the west side of the unnamed road from Bryncrug to Cil-Cemaes, between Pentre-Uchaf and Yr Hen Ysgol.

History

Erected in the late C19 or early C20 when a piped public water supply was brought to the village, one of five pumps surviving in and around Bryncrug. In 1883 medical officer J.Ff. Jones reported to Towyn’s Local Board that Bryncrug depended on a heavily polluted river for all its drinking water. A Mr.Collingwood was tasked with solving the problem, though he was not actually present at the Board meeting. A decade later the Cambrian News satirised the failure to connect the village to the main water supply: “That the Bryncrugites should be so decidedly particular as to a few entrails and a little blood in their drinking water is more than one of the members of Towyn Local Board can understand.” Several pumps were installed by 1899 with one of them added in 1907, though the exact sequencing is unclear.

Exterior

Water lift pump manufactured by Joseph Evans & Sons (Wolverhampton) Ltd. Cast iron vertical water pipe with widened and fluted top chamber with a spout with scrolled bucket hook, having a leaf like form at its junction with the main pipe. A lion rampant, trademark of Joseph Evans, is embossed on the rising pipe above raised lettering, illegible below layers of paint. The pump is steadied by a single stay bar and collar. Fluted domed cap with broken handle.

Reason for designation

Included for special historic interest as a well preserved C19 water pump, notwithstanding loss of handle. One of a group of five such pumps in the area which together constitute an interesting and unusually complete example of a public amenity, unusual in a rural area.