Survey Data
Reg No
15400312
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Social, Technical
Original Use
Water pump
Date
1870 - 1900
Coordinates
246966, 275113
Date Recorded
07/10/2004
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Freestanding cast-iron, water pump, erected c.1885. Banded cylindrical shaft with fluted neck and flat plate top with 'cow-tail' handle. Cap now missing. Set on cement base and surrounded by concrete wall, open to front (south). Located to the north of Castlepollard, adjacent to rural road junction.
Appraisal
A typical late nineteenth-century water pump, of a standard design that is encountered throughout rural Westmeath. Water pumps played an important social role in the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries by providing a communal water source before the development of mains water supply. Frequently, as in this case, water pumps were located at or near road junctions. This cast-iron pump now serves as an attractive piece of street furniture, aesthetically enhancing the rural landscape to the north of Castlepollard.