Survey Data

Reg No

15319014


Rating

Regional


Categories of Special Interest

Architectural, Social, Technical


Original Use

Water pump


In Use As

Water pump


Date

1870 - 1900


Coordinates

236303, 239209


Date Recorded

27/09/2004


Date Updated

--/--/--


Description

Freestanding cast-iron water pump, erected c.1885, comprising banded cylindrical shaft with fluted head having fluted spout, ‘cow tail’ curvilinear handle, and fluted ogee-dome cap with finial. Set in rendered walled enclosure, open to road to the southwest. Located to the southeast of Ballynagore.

Appraisal

A typical late nineteenth-century water pump, of a standard design encountered throughout rural Westmeath. Water pumps played an important social role in the late nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries by providing a communal water source before the development of mains water supply. This water pump is sited adjacent to a rural road junction, a communing location for water pumps for obvious reasons. This cast-iron pump now serves as an attractive piece of street furniture, aesthetically enhancing the rural landscape to the southeast of Ballynagore.